A landowner group sues over Wahpeton water sale

The lawsuit was filed on Friday in Burleigh County District Court against the state water agency. It asks the court to overturn the department’s rejection of the group’s administrative challenge and to cancel its approval of the transaction.

The approved arrangement would transfer 500,000 gallons of water each day from the city of Wahpeton to the Southeast Water Users District. The district would be one source of water for Abercrombie Dairy, which Riverview is building north of Wahpeton. The water would be drawn from the Wahpeton Buried Valley Aquifer.

The plaintiffs say area residents depend on the same aquifer used by Wahpeton and the dairy. Their filing argues that the approval is inconsistent with the Department of Water Resources’ responsibility to manage the state’s water resources. Mary Sahl, a Richland County resident and one of the appellants, said the city and nearby farms had no alternative groundwater supply.

“I do not understand why the state is risking the depletion of the only water source for the city of Wahpeton and the surrounding farmsteads,” Sahl said in a news release. “There is no backup water supply for Wahpeton or for those of us who rely on this groundwater.”

An administrative law judge dismissed the residents’ claims on July 30, ruling that they lacked standing because they lived outside Wahpeton and had not suffered harm. The residents sought reconsideration from Water Resources in August, but the agency rejected that request. The department said on Monday that it would not comment on pending litigation.

Riverview says its large dairies generally need between 28 and 30 gallons of water per cow each day. At that rate, Abercrombie Dairy would require at least 350,000 gallons daily. Riverview’s proposed Herberg Dairy near Hillsboro, in Traill County, would have 25,000 cows and require roughly twice as much water. The company says it aims to recycle water where possible. At its 10,000-cow Campbell Dairy in Minnesota’s Wilkin County, collected rainwater from barn and other building roofs supplies about half of the operation’s needs; Riverview has described similar plans for its North Dakota facilities.

The Dakota Resource Council is also suing Riverview and the Department of Environmental Quality over the proposed Herberg Dairy near the Red River. A judge heard arguments in that case in July but had not issued a ruling.