It will be at least two weeks before a judge decides whether to issue an injunction to prevent landowners from blocking access to land proposed for a new Devils Lake outlet.
The Devils Lake Basin Joint Water Resource Board is considering a gravity-flow outlet connecting Stump Lake, attached to Devils Lake, to the Sheyenne River.
Northeast Central District Judge Sonja Clapp on Friday asked both sides in the dispute to provide additional information, according to Rebecca Nelson, Nelson County deputy clerk of court in Lakota, N.D.
The State Water Commission and the joint water board have until next Friday to submit detailed information about the planned project, a $17 million, 0.95 mile-long, 40 foot-deep channel from the south end of Stump Lake to the Tolna Coulee.
Representatives of three of the five properties along the proposed route that are opposing access have until Dec. 16 to submit their data. The defendants are: Harris and Unice Forde, trustees of the Forde Family Trust; Marc and Kathy Halvorson; and Adam Roerick.
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The planned gravity outlet is one of two the state plans to build in 2012 to help fight an 18-year-old basin flood. The state also is in the beginning stages of building a 350-cubic-feet-per-second controlled outlet from East Devils Lake to the Sheyenne River.
Devils Lake, which has risen by about 32 feet and quadrupled in size since 1993, hit a record elevation of 1,454.4 feet this summer, less than four feet from the natural spill elevation. The lake since has dropped nearly one foot, but officials expect it to surpass 1,455 feet or even higher in 2012.
Reach Bonham at (701) 780-1110; (800) 477-6572, ext. 110; or send email to kbonham@gfherald.com .
