The great plains Garrison Diversion Unit and the search for an environmental ethic

The Garrison Diversion Unit (GDU) was authorized by Congress in 1965. It is one of the largest and most expensive public works projects ever undertaken in the United States. When completed, it may become the last major federal irrigation scheme constructed in the west. Its principal purposes are: (1) to irrigate some 250,000 acres of arable land in North Dakota, (2) provide water for municipal and industrial use in fourteen communities, and (3) enhance recreational opportunities and fish and wildlife management programs within, and adjacent to, the canals and reservoirs resulting from its construction. The project is to be financed by hydropower sales from Lake Sakakawea, created when Garrison Dam was completed in 1956.¹ Concerted litigation, Canadian opposition, and federal budget cuts have sharply reduced the size and scope of GDU since 1984. Its irrigable acreage has been reduced by over 50%, a principal feeder reservoir has been eliminated, and provision of municipal and industrial water delivery has been moved from second to first priority by a Congressional commission. The GDU controversy illustrates the consequences of the lack of a coherent environmental ethic guiding American natural resources policy. These consequences are two-fold. First, although GDU's impacts extend to Canada, there is little agreement between the U.S. and Canada over what values should guide transboundary water resources development. Second, American beneficaries of the project define its need in pre-emptory terms - i.e., as compensation to an entire region for losses of land associated with the original construction of Garrison Dam. Opponents, meanwhile, argue their case in meliorative terms - i.e., that the costs to society of building additional water projects are not outweighed by their benefits. While both views have some merit, neither view can alone encompass the range of social, economic, and environmental consequences of complex river basin development.Operated by Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc. for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-840R21400.