ND Department of Agriculture Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 19, 2010

GOEHRING BACKS EFFORT TO END CORPS' DUMPING OF SOIL

BISMARCK – Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said Missouri’s dispute with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over dumping soil into the Missouri River has serious implications for North Dakota and for American agriculture.

“The Corps is digging side channels along the Missouri River to create habitat for the endangered pallid sturgeon,” Goehring said. “The digging is not the issue – it is the dumping of half a billion of tons of soil into the river that is the matter of concern.”

Goehring said the soil contains high levels of nutrients, notably phosphorus and nitrogen, which are carried downstream to the Gulf of Mexico, causing excessive growth of plankton. Decomposition of the plankton consumes the oxygen needed to support other life forms, causing a condition known as hypoxia, and creating the infamous “dead zone” in the Gulf.

The Corps stopped the work in Missouri in 2008, when the Missouri Clean Water Commission ordered an end to all soil dumping.

“Since then, the dead zone in the Gulf has greatly decreased in size, instead of expanding as predicted,” Goehring said. “Unfortunately, the Corps is now looking at digging the channels in Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska and dumping the soil into the river.”

Goehring said he is troubled by the fact that agricultural activities have long been blamed for the dead zone, while the Corps’ activities have largely gone unchallenged by federal authorities who are charged with environmental protection.

“Private businesses, including farms and ranches, that dump soil or nutrient-laden material into the nation’s waterways face severe penalties,” he said. “Yet the Corps of Engineers can dump a half billion tons of nutrient-rich soil into the river, and all the environmental regulators can say is that the Clean Water Act should not stop the Corp’s work.”

“The United States spends an estimated $2 billion annually to save some 450 million tons of soil,” he said. “Surely the Corps can find a better use for this valuable resource."

Goehring said he will work with other state agriculture officials from states along the Missouri River and with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture to persuade the Corps to put the excavated soil someplace other than the river.”

“We don’t object to the Corps’ project, just the process,” he said. “We want them to do it in an environmentally responsible manner. We want them to follow the same rules and regulations the rest of us must face.”

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MEDIA: For more information, please contact Ted Quanrud at (701) 328-2233 or tquanrud@nd.gov.