WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 24, 2000—The U.S. Senate has passed a $630 million North Dakota water project bill that Canada claims will send damaging fish and plants into Manitoba and eventually the Hudson Bay.
The bill, which was in committee for nearly a year, will go to the House of Representatives. The bill assures delivery of municipal, rural and industrial water to communities and four Indian reservations as well as providing irrigation water. Many North Dakota communities lack enough clean water and the state has been pushing for a large federally funded water project as compensation for 550,000 acres (222,600 hectares) of land during the 1950s to Missouri River dams.
But the bill would divert water into the Red River of the North, which flows into Lake Winnipeg. Outlets from the lake drain into Hudson Bay. A spokeswoman for the Canadian embassy said the bill deleted a 1986 guarantee that Canada would be consulted before water from the Missouri River basin could be diverted. Canada has opposed the move on the grounds that it could introduce foreign plant and animal species which could upset Canadian ecosystems and fisheries.
