DAZEY, N.D. (Wimbledon Newsletter) – Lowering the level of Ten Mile Lake in northwestern Barnes County has been discussed for more than a decade.

The high maximum level of the lake has been approximately 1430 feet of elevation in past years. This spring, the flooding situation became urgent as the lake rose more than 6 feet above that level. The situation remains urgent in mid-July, as Ten Mile Lake is currently at 1435 feet elevation.

Earlier this spring a group of impacted farmers, landowners, and communities began their petition to lower Ten Mile Lake. The objective is to lower Ten Mile Lake from it’s current 1435 foot elevation down to 1430 feet during normal operation, with an additional 2 foot draw down in the autumn to allow for spring melt capacity.

Over 50 area farmers and interested parties attended an informational meeting held Wednesday, July 22nd in Dazey where five possible outflow options to move the water towards Lake Ashtabula and the Sheyenne River were presented by Josh Hassell of Moore Engineering.

Routing the water east past Dazey was the consensus preferred option of the stakeholders in attendance.

Dazey Mayor Justin Sherlock said it was really good to see that something is starting to take shape to address the ongoing excessive water issues in our area. We know it could take some time for the project to be finalized. But it seemed like there was a general consensus from the community and neighboring landowners that something should move forward as realistically as possible with this water issue.

The next informational meeting is expected to be in September, after further studies of the preferred route have been completed. Impacts to existing wetlands and US Fish & Wildlife easements are two of many factors to be considered as the project moves forward.

Story submitted to NewsDakota.com by the Wimbledon Newsletter.

The feature photo is a file photo from Dazey, ND following a torrential rainfall in the summer of 2019. A torrential rainfall inundating the city on July 17th of 2019 flooding several basements in the city.