The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers appears to be renewing its interest in developing sandbars on the Missouri River that would provide habitat for the piping plover and interior least tern, both protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Burleigh County Commissioner Doug Schonert reported at Monday's meeting that the county water resource board had received a letter from the corps indicating the federal agency's interest in creating sandbars between Fort Peck, Mont., and Sioux City, Iowa, to help protect the birds.

"You may remember about a year ago the corps proposing to build the sandbars in the river to protect the birds," Schonert said. "Some meetings were held and a lot of public input gathered. There was a lot of dissatisfaction expressed with the corps and most people were upset by what they are trying to do.

"The corps admitted that the sandbars they would be building could be destroyed in four to five years with the rise of the Missouri,"Schonert told his fellow commissioners. "It was even brought to our attention that this area wasn't even in the primary flyway of these birds."

It had appeared the corps had backed away from the proposal, but then three days after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Ken Royse, chairman of the Burleigh water board, received a communication from the corps. The fact sheet indicated the agency's intention "to implement a program for the mechanical maintenance and creation of emergent sandbar habitat as recommended by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service."

The corps is preparing an environmental-impact statement to analyze the effects of the project. This, according to Royse, is a significant change from the environmental-assessment study the corps originally proposed. Royse explained an EIS is a much more sophisticated and in-depth study.

"This shows, I think, that there was some value in those public meetings we held, since they've decided to do an EIS instead of an EA," Royse said. "One thing that concerned us is that the corps planned on closing the sandbars they either created or converted to the public from mid-May through August. This is the peak time for sandbar use by boaters."

North Dakota counties along the Missouri have been asked to write letters to the corps expressing their concerns and the issues they want addressed in the EIS.

"It is obvious that no matter what our objections are, you plan to proceed with this wildlife project," Royse wrote.

The letter asks the corps consider impacts to recreation, the flood plain in the Bismarck-Mandan area, municipal, industrial and agriculture water supply intakes, hydroelectric generation, loss of land and to wildlife other than the birds in question.

"We do not oppose efforts to increase the least tern and piping plover population," Royse added. "We do believe the Missouri River corridor in North Dakota prior to dam construction was not the principle nesting grounds for these birds because of the double spring rise in the river which impacted nesting on sandbars. The prairie pothole area should be targeted for recovery areas and not the river or reservoir areas."

Royse also suggests a number of mitigation efforts including bank stabilization, landowner compensation for increased flood levels, a 10-mile corridor in the Bismarck-Mandan area open for public access during nesting season, cost share assistance for water intakes, funding for home and business relocation resulting from increased floodplain levels and wildlife mitigation.

Schonert said he feels the money needed for the sandbar project, a figure he placed at $89 million, would be better spent by the corps on reconstruction of the Gulf Coast levies.

"I think this is the time to hit them," Schonert said. "The corps is catching a lot of flak and federal expenditures are being cut to many programs, including housing and farming. This program should not be going on."

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@;bismarcktribune.com.)