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The state Water Commission needs the permit to operate a lake outlet that channels excess water into the Sheyenne River if conditions allow. It cost about $28 million to build, and has been used infrequently since it began operating in August 2005 because of low Sheyenne water flows and high levels of salts in the river.
The existing permit expires June 30. The Water Commission is asking the Health Department to extend it to June 30, 2013. The agency held a public hearing Tuesday at Lake Region State College in Devils Lake to hear public comment on the request.
Richard Betting, a spokesman for People to Save the Sheyenne, a group that opposed construction of the outlet, said the project was "a mistake from the beginning, and this permit renewal will allow the wasteful and damaging project to continue."
The outlet, Betting said, "will not be a significant factor in either preventing a rise on Devils Lake or a possible overflow from the lake into the Sheyenne River."
The outlet also has drawn opposition from Manitoba, where officials fear it would introduce potentially harmful material into Canadian waters. The Sheyenne River is a tributary of the Red River, which flows north along the North Dakota-Minnesota border into Lake Winnipeg.
Bruce Engelhardt, a Water Commission engineer who supervises the outlet, said the channel is intended to slow the rise of Devils Lake, not to reduce its water levels.
The threat of further Devils Lake flooding has diminished as the lake's level has fallen during the previous two years.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured the lake level at just under 1,447 feet above sea level on Tuesday, compared to 1,449.2 feet in May 2006. The terms of the proposed permit say the outlet must stop operating if the lake falls to 1,445 feet.
"It's a difficult balancing act ... to provide some benefit to reducing the flooding around Devils Lake, while still minimizing the impacts along the Sheyenne River," Engelhardt said.
Dennis Fewless, the department's water quality director, said the agency is likely to renew the permit. Fewless served as a hearing officer during Tuesday's hearing in Devils Lake.
Dave Glatt, chief of the Health Department's environmental health section, said the terms of the renewed permit would be almost identical to the permit the Water Commission is now using. It has been in effect since August 2006.
If the permit is renewed, the Water Commission would be barred from operating the lake outlet if it would raise the Sheyenne River's sulfate levels above 450 milligrams per liter of water.
If the river's sulfate levels are below 260 milligrams per liter, the outlet may divert water until the river levels reach 300 milligrams per liter, under the permit.
The outlet may not operate if the Sheyenne River is frozen, and it may not discharge more than 100 cubic feet per second of water, the permit says.
