Byron Dorgan: “I wish to address a different subject. It has to do with water issues, a subject that will cause some eyes to glaze over…”

“I wish to address a different subject. It has to do with water issues, a subject that will cause some eyes to glaze over perhaps in some quarters, but an important subject to my State. You know that I come from a small State. I come from the State of North Dakota, which is large in expanse, 10 times the size of Massachusetts, but with 640,000 people. So it is a sparsely populated State. A lot of people do not know that we have a flood in North Dakota that came and stayed--a permanent flood the size of the State of Rhode Island. It was not an accidental flood. It was a flood that came and stayed in my State because 50 years ago there were some who felt that we should harness the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and, as part of the flood control provisions called the Pick-Sloan Act, to harness the Missouri River so that it didn't flood the cities downstream. So that they could have reliable navigation downstream, they decided, ``Let us build some dams on the Missouri River.'' One of those dams was built in North Dakota. President Eisenhower came out to dedicate the dam. It is called the Garrison Dam. What the Federal Government said then to the State of North Dakota is, in order for us to control flooding downstream and to protect the larger cities downstream, would you please play host to a large flood that comes and stays forever?”