The top of the levee protecting the City of Devils Lake is currently only two feet above the water level and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is frantically trying to raise this dike five feet to prepare for continued flooding next spring. Mr. Chairman, the Federal Emergency Management Agency established the Devils Lake Basin Interagency Task Force in 1995 to identify ways to combat this flood. Federal, state and local government officials are now aggressively implementing the comprehensive flood-fighting strategy developed by the Task Force. Implemented independently, none of these elements can solve this flood disaster. But each is a critical element of the overall strategy to combat this flood.
Water storage is important to slow run-off into the lake and increase the rate of evaporation.
The Secretary of Agriculture named the entire Prairie Pothole Region, including the Devils Lake basin, as a National Conservation Priority Area and modified the enrollment of shallow water areas in CRP to address water retention around Devils Lake. Efforts are continuing to protect infrastructure in the basin. FHWA is coordinating with the North Dakota Department of Transportation to construct a bridge connecting the Spirit Lake Nation to the City of Devils Lake. Also, as I mentioned, over 200 homes have been moved or destroyed and the Corps is raising the dike protecting the residents of Devils Lake. An emergency outlet from Devils Lake to the Sheyenne River is an essential element of this comprehensive strategy.