Re. your April 26 story, "Irrigation test expected to start in June":

In the story, Cando farmer Mike Parker said that dispersal of water in the Devils Lake Basin "is not going to make the lake go down, but if you have excess water, you might as well use it as a plus."

The upper Missouri River, rising in Montana, fills from springs, streams and rivers of snowmelt off mountains. There has been a decreasing amount of snow year by year. Towns and cities along the Missouri River that take their water from the river increasingly wonder if the lowering water levels will be a long-term condition of scarcity.

In eastern North Dakota, however, Devils Lake is filling to overflowing with unwanted excess water, as everyone knows. Will this situation become a long-term one, too?

Doesn't it make sense to study the feasibility of building a canal from Devils Lake across the 70 or so miles to Audubon Lake, or further? The direction and amount of waterflow could be controlled by locks and siphons. And, farmers could be given permission to dredge the canal for the valuable algae and silt to fertilize their fields.

The canal might take headwaters of small rivers emptying into the Red River to help reduce that river's floods, as well. Such a reduction of Red River floods in Manitoba would make Canadians joyful. And, extra water in the Missouri would make downriver Americans also very pleased.