The stay essentially frees the Corps from three court orders that had restricted water releases from reservoirs in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska. The stay does not address a temporary restraining order issued for Fort Peck in Montana.

S.D. Attorney General Mark Barnett spoke with the Dakota News Network following the announcement of the stay order. He says South Dakota will continue to pursue the main case vigorously. He says while the injunctions may be blocked, the larger issue remains.

Barnett says the injunctions did serve their purpose and protected the annual fish spawn at several key reservoirs on the Missouri River. He says the majority of the prime spawning season has already occurred, so today's ruling will still have a lesser impact than if it had occurred a week ago.

Barnett says he will confer with Governor Bill Janklow and discuss whether or not South Dakota will seek a permanent injunction against the Corps of Engineers. He says the State wants a Court to order the Corps to give equal consideration to upstream recreation interests rather than just downstream barge traffic.

The State has two top priorities at this point, according to Barnett. He says first, the State intends to make the Corps of Engineers "keep their word" and follow an agreement on river management reached in 1992. Second, Barnett says the state will continue to press the Corps to release the revised "Master Manual" and update Corps river practices in regard to upstream concerns.

Assistant Attorney General Charlie McGuigan says he and others are still assessing the impacts of today's stay order. However, he says the main case remains intact and is proceeding.
 

The announcement comes less than a week after state attorneys fought for and won a federal preliminary injunction preventing the Corps of Engineers from releasing water at both sites.
Under terms of the agreement, the Corps will release six inches of water from Lake Oahe and Lake Sharpe. Janklow says that amount of water will not have an impact on the smelt spawn currently underway in Oahe. He says the Corps has already decimated the spawn at Sharpe so little additional damage is expected there.

Janklow says the releases adhere to a federal court ruling preventing the Corp from lower levels at Oahe and Sharpe. He says the six inches of water is mostly from run-off following a weekend of rain in central South Dakota. The six inches will not violate the preliminary injunction and meets all legal requirements.

Janklow said Wednesday that he agreed to the releases following discussions with the governors of Nebraska and North Dakota. In return for allowing the releases without challenge, Nebraska officials will set up a meeting of eight state's governors and Corps officials to discuss the management of the river over the next year.
 
Janklow says the meeting will likely be held in Nebraska within coming weeks. Governors from Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas will participate in the meeting. Corps litigators and water rights experts will also attend.

The judge also rejected Nebraska's request to intervene in South Dakota's lawsuit, prompting Nebraska Attorney Don Steinberg to say the state will join any appeal by the corps that challenges Kornmann's decision not to allow Nebraska to intervene in the case.

The corps began taking water Friday night from other reservoirs in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, including Lewis and Clark Lake in South Dakota to maintain water levels at Oahe and Francis Case Lakes.

On Sunday, May 12th, the state of North Dakota received a temporary restraining order against the Corps to maintain water levels at Lake Sakakawea until May 25th.
This leaves the corps with an option to move water from Ft. Peck and continue to drain Big Bend dam.

Governor Bill Janklow from South Dakota will meet today with North Dakota Governor John Hoeven in Bismark to discuss the lawsuit. They will discuss the implications of the suit in both states. Governor Janklow did say if the corps singled out reservoirs in North Dakota or Montana to sustain water levels at Francis Case, he may withdraw the lawsuit and allow the corps to lower water levels at Oahe and Francis Case.

The Corps of Engineers claims that lowering release levels from Gavins Point Dam could ground the 60 barges already in use on the lower Missouri River. They are expected to appeal the judges decision. Nebraska was not allowed to intervene in the case because the dispute would then pit two states against each other and as a result, would have to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court.

This decision could have a dramatic outcome for all of us who boat on the lower Missouri River, not to mention the barge industry and power plants in Nebraska who rely on a maintained water level in the river.