U.S. Water News Online
BISMARCK, N.D. -- North Dakota officials say a drainage lawsuit filed by a Manitoba city is retaliation for a three-year-old water lawsuit filed by the Pembina County Water Resource District in northeastern North Dakota.
The city of Rhineland alleges that illegal drainage along the Pembina River increased the amount of water flowing north across the international border and into the Manitoba community.
The lawsuit was filed in Winnipeg against the Cavalier County Water Resource Board; Pembina County, its Water Resource District and five townships; and the North Dakota Water Commission.
Todd Sando, an assistant Water Commission engineer, said it amounts to a countersuit against North Dakota government agencies.
The Pembina County Water Resource District in 2004 sued Manitoba and some local provincial governments over a 26-mile earthen barrier on the border. Canadians call it a road, but North Dakota officials say it is a dike that causes flooding south of the border.
Rhineland's lawsuit "is retaliation," said Bill Hardy, president of the Cavalier County water board.
The state attorney general's office said lawyers dealing with the Rhineland case were out of the office.
Cavalier attorney Neil Fleming, who represents the Pembina County Water Resource District, said the lawsuit filed in 2004 against Manitoba has not yet been scheduled for trial, but that might happen later this month. He said he anticipates the trial will happen this year.
Fleming said he also is monitoring the Rhineland lawsuit.
"I think it's a frivolous lawsuit and direct retaliation for the filing of the first lawsuit," he said.
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