Devil's Lake basin speakers urge state review of long-term damage to landowners

Several presenters and county officials told the committee the Devil's Lake basin has experienced decades of rising water and large-scale inundation that has left private farmland underwater, reduced productive acreage and created long-term economic and infrastructure impacts.

Jeff Frith, manager of the Devil's Lake Basin Joint Water Resource Board, said basin elevation increases have inundated tens of thousands of private acres and cited county-level inundation tallies and the effects on roads and services. Frith told lawmakers Ramsey County alone reported more than 56,000 acres that qualified as inundated at county assessments, with broader basin totals exceeding 95,000 acres between nearby counties.

Multiple residents gave first-person accounts. Karen Hausman described family farms inundated for years and said operations lost productive acres despite soil quality remaining in some places; she raised concerns about outlet operations and whether upstream conditions are factored into decisions to shut pumps for the season. Another resident, Garland Hoisted, recounted historical land claims, the social costs to communities, and asked whether state sovereign-land decisions and easement patterns have been applied appropriately.

Testimony raised a series of legal and policy questions: when does submerged private land become "sovereign" land of the state, what triggers permanent state ownership versus return to private ownership as water recedes, and whether the state has provided adequate compensation for infrastructure and productivity losses. Committee members requested more data on the acreage and the history of easement extent to inform legislative options.

What's next: Committee asked Department of Water Resources (DWR) staff and legal counsel to prepare a focused briefing on Devil's Lake management, the sovereign-land treatment of submerged parcels and available mitigation/compensation programs for a future meeting.