U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet FS-033-98
March 1998
By Gregg J. Wiche
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The Devils Lake Basin is a 3,810-square-mile (mi2) closed basin in the Red River of the North Basin. The basin is contributing only when the level of Devils Lake is greater than 1,459 feet (ft) above sea level (asl). About 3,320 mi2 of the total 3,810 mi2 is tributary to Devils Lake; the remainder is tributary to Stump Lake.
Since glaciation, the lake level of Devils Lake has fluctuated from about 1,459 ft asl, the natural spill elevation of the lake to the Sheyenne River (Bruce Engelhardt, North Dakota State Water Commission, oral commun., 1998), to 1,400 ft asl. Although no documented records of lake levels are available before 1867, Upham (1895, pl 595), on the basis of tree-ring chronology, indicated that the lake level was 1,441 ft asl in 1830. Lake levels were recorded sporadically from 1867 to 1901 when the U.S. Geological Survey established a gaging station on Devils Lake. From 1867 to the present (1998), the lake level has fluctuated between a maximum of 1,443.0 ft asl in 1997 and a minimum of 1,400.9 ft asl in 1940. On January 31, 1998, the lake level was 1,442.7 ft asl, about 20.1 ft higher than the level recorded in February 1993.
Since 1993, the lake level of Devils Lake has risen rapidly in response to above-normal precipitation from the summer of 1993 to the present, and 50,000 acres of land around the lake have been flooded. The above-normal precipitation also has caused flooding elsewhere in the Devils Lake Basin. State highways near Devils Lake are being raised, and some roads have been closed because of flooding.
In response to the flooding, the Devils Lake Basin Interagency Task Force, comprised of many State and Federal agencies, was formed in 1995 to find and propose intermediate (5 years or less) solutions to reduce the effects of high lake levels. In addition to various planning studies being conducted by Federal agencies, the North Dakota State Water Commission has implemented a project to store water on small tracts of land and in the chain of lakes (Sweetwater Lake, Morrison Lake, Dry Lake, Mikes Lake, Chain Lake, Lake Alice, and Lake Irvine). North Dakota's flood solutions include options to manage and store water in the Devils Lake Basin, to continue infrastructure protection, and to provide an outlet to the Sheyenne River via West Bay Devils Lake. Outlet construction requires consideration of water-quantity and -quality issues in designing the operating plan. Therefore, current and accurate hydrologic information is needed to assess the viability of the various options to reduce flood damages at Devils Lake.
Introduction
Lake Levels and Streamflow
Surface-Water Quality
Tributaries Upstream of the Chain of Lakes
Chain of Lakes and Downstream Tributaries
Devils Lake
West and East Stump Lakes
Sheyenne River
References
Figures
1. Location of the Devils Lake Basin and dissolved-solids and sulfate concentrations in Devils Lake and West and East Stump Lakes, 1997.
2. Historic water level for Devils Lake, 1867-1997.
3. Streamflow for the Sheyenne River near Warwick for water years 1990 and 1997.
4. Dissolved-solids concentrations for streams and lakes in the Devils Lake area. [Period of record varies for each site and ranges from 1951 through 1997 for the Sheyenne River near Warwick (526 samples) to 1984 through 1997 for Channel A near Penn (67 samples).]
5. Average dissolved-solids concentration for selected locations in Devils Lake and West and East Stump Lakes. [Period of record varies for each site and ranges from 1949 through 1979 and from 1993 through 1995 for East Stump Lake (82 samples) to 1988 through 1990 for Mission Bay (11 samples).]
6. Average dissolved-solids and sulfate concentrations in the Sheyenne River near Warwick with and without the addition of water from Devils Lake.
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