Hoeven Presses For U.S. State Department Support On Pembina Border Dike

Press Release

Hoeven Presses For U.S. State Department Support On Pembina Border Dike

Gov. John Hoeven Tuesday hand delivered a number of photographs to U.S. State Department officials illustrating flooding in Pembina County North Dakota caused by a 30-mile-long Canadian road functioning as a dike along the international border, a clear violation of the U.S. Boundary Waters Treaty Act of 1909.

Hoeven presented the photo to Beatrice Soila of the U.S. State Department's Canadian desk at a meeting late yesterday afternoon to press the case for removing or modifying the structure and implementing effective drainage for both North Dakota and the province.

Hoeven met with city and county Pembina officials when he was in Pembina and Neche last month working on the flood fight, and promised to press the case in Washington. The Pembina Water Resources District has undertaken a lawsuit with state funding support against the Province of Manitoba in the Canadian Courts to compel the province to remove or modify the structure. That lawsuit should go to trial in the Fall of this year.

"The road dike has no bridges, and just a few small culverts for drainage, essentially making it a dam that causes water to backup on the North Dakota side of the border," Hoeven said. "That results in the flooding of homes and farms on our side of the border, while protecting Canadian property owners. We are asking that the State Department seek removal of the dike and work with us on a plan to build comprehensive drainage that will protect the entire region, not just one side of the border."

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