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Department of Water Resources reports heavy data gains, project updates and budget pressures
Summary
The Department of Water Resources reported a rapid expansion of automated data collection, updates on major regional water projects, limits on Devil's Lake outlet operation because of sulfate levels, and cash‑management changes intended to stretch resources amid a multibillion‑dollar project inventory.
Reese Hawes, director of the North Dakota Department of Water Resources, told the committee the department has invested in lower‑cost remote monitoring and has dramatically increased the volume and frequency of water‑resource data available to the state.
Hawes described an in‑house remote sensing unit called a "presence" unit (pushing remote sensors) that can collect data every 15 minutes. He said the units cost roughly $477 each for the in‑house design versus about $2,000 for a comparable commercial product; DWR has deployed about 675 units across the state and has collected more than 26 million data points since 2018. "In the last year alone, we've collected more data than the previous 80 years combined," Hawes said.
Hawes provided project updates and operational constraints. He said the Devil’s Lake outlets operated this season but…
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