Water Development Goals & Priorities
Goal: Improve resiliency and protect North Dakota’s citizens and economy from negative water-related impacts.
Highest Priority Initiatives
- Address imminent flood or dam related threats to human life or primary residences, or emergency response efforts.
- Support advancement of federally authorized flood protection projects.
- Support mitigation of low head dam roller effects.
- Support projects that protect primary residences or businesses from flooding in population centers or involve flood-related property acquisitions.
Goal: Improve resiliency and provide safe and reliable water supplies for the health and prosperity of North Dakota’s citizens and economy.
Highest Priority Initiatives
- Address imminent water supply loss to an existing multi-user system, or emergency response efforts.
- Support advancement of federally authorized water supply projects.
- Support new water supply connections between communities and rural or regional water systems that result in reduced costs through economies of scale.
- Correct violations of primary drinking water standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
- Address severe or anticipated water supply shortages for domestic use in a service area or city with rapid population growth.
The Planning Process
Commissioner-Hosted Meetings
The 2025 water development planning process began in January 2024. At that time, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) sent letters of request to potential water project sponsors across the state, asking them for information regarding water projects and programs that could be considered for inclusion in the 2025 Water Development Plan.
Water projects and water management efforts are continually evolving and advancing, making it necessary to update project information on a biennial basis. Simultaneously, the DWR and Water Commission are charged with ensuring responsible stewardship of state funding in both the short- and long-term. For those reasons, the 2025 water planning process involved a request to project sponsors to forecast funding needs for multiple biennia into the future. The information received from local project sponsors as part of this project inventory process ultimately becomes the foundation of the Commission’s budget request to the Governor and Legislature. The other key element of the 2025 planning process was Water Commissioner-hosted basin meetings. To promote and encourage local project sponsor participation in water planning and in legislative and agency biennial budgeting efforts, NDCC 61-02-01.3 requires the agency to host meetings within the Commissioners’ eight basins they represent. As required by statute, the meetings are to be held in the lower and upper Red; James; Mouse; lower and upper Missouri River; Little Missouri, Upper Heart, and Cannonball; and Devils Lake basins. For the eight basin meetings, water management and development stakeholders, and project sponsors were invited and encouraged to attend and provide input. Specific areas of focus for the meetings included:
- Basin specific activities;
- A DWR budget update;
- The 2025 Water Development Plan process;
- State-owned project updates;
- DWR studies, surveys, and educational campaigns; and
- Project summaries and updates from sponsors, as well as public comments.
During the public comment period, there were water project overviews from sponsors and general discussions about various water management and development topics.
Partners
North Dakota’s water planning process strives to encourage collaboration between stakeholders and the formation of partnerships with numerous government entities at all levels of government, Tribal Nations, and with the Legislature. It is also important to recognize the unique relationships between the private sector and many of the state’s local government entities and water managers. This important tie completes North Dakota’s grass-roots approach to water management and development, where the state recognizes that many of the best solutions are forged at the local level.
DWR has a long history of working together with all stakeholders, while encouraging partnerships to ensure the wise management and development of North Dakota’s water resources for the benefit of current and future generations. As we look to the future, North Dakota faces many challenges in managing its water. But working together with all stakeholders will enable the state to move more efficiently toward effective development and management of the state’s water resources.
Authority
By virtue of North Dakota Century Code (N.D.C.C.), § 61-02-14, Powers and Duties of the Commission; N.D.C.C. § 61-02-26, Duties of State Agencies Concerned with Intrastate Use or Disposition of Waters; and N.D.C.C. § 61-02-01.3, Comprehensive Water Development Plan, the Water Commission biennially develops and maintains a comprehensive Water Development Plan - including an inventory of future water projects for budgeting and planning purposes.