North Dakota and South Dakota are on the same page on Missouri River issues despite seemingly different viewpoints on the merits of the biological opinion released Thursday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds said his state would benefit because the opinion appears to keep more water in upstream reservoirs.

"We think this is good news for South Dakota. We think this means there is more water in our reservoir systems," the governor said Thursday.

"He's looking at it more positively," North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven said Friday.

Hoeven said the key is how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers chooses to implement portions of the biological opinion, in which the USFWS gave the corps two years to evaluate ways to help threatened or endangered pallid sturgeon and shorebirds.

If the corps does not find ways to support sturgeon spawning and create sufficient habitat for all three species, the opinion calls for specific water flows to be used in managing the river.

"It is a step forward from where we are now, and it and does give the corps more opportunity for drought management," Hoeven said. "The key is whether they will do it."

Hoeven said he will continue his efforts to press for more drought conservation, saying the biological opinion gives the corps the flexibility to implement conservation measures.

"I'd prefer they be required to (introduce drought conservation measures)," Hoeven said. "They have disappointed us many times in the past."

Rounds said officials from the corps and all of the states along the river have cooperated in the effort to find compromise.

"This has been a long time coming," Rounds said. "I think we've moved in the right direction."

Rounds said he hopes the biological opinion allows the corps to finish work by next spring on revising its master manual, a guide for operating the Missouri River. The corps has said the revision will include provisions to conserve more water in upstream reservoirs.

Upstream and downstream states have been fighting for more than a decade on how to manage the Missouri River.

Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota want steady or rising water in the river's six huge reservoirs in the spring to protect the shallow water hatching of fish eggs that are crucial to the multimillion dollar sport fishing industries.

Downstream states want water to support barge traffic from Sioux City, Iowa, to St. Louis in the free-flowing stretch of the river below the last dam, Gavins Point, on the South Dakota-Nebraska border. The downstream states also want water for cities, power plants and other uses.

(The Associated Press contributed to this story. Reach reporter Richard Hinton at 250-8256 or outdoors@bismarcktribune.net.)