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• The corps' plan also appears to propose requiring contracts and payments from users who take water from the reservoirs, while people downstream of the dams would not pay anything while benefiting from flood control, water supplies and electricity generated by the dams, the governor said.
• "Requiring upstream states to pay the entire cost with people in the downstream states enjoying these benefits at no cost is not equitable," Daugaard wrote.
• The Corps of Engineers has proposed a storage fee system that would designate some water in the reservoirs as surplus because it has not been used for purposes authorized when the dams were built.
• Municipal and industrial users would have to enter into contracts to purchase the water. They now only need to get an easement from the corps to install an intake, and the state issues a water right.
• The charges would not take effect unless the corps passes a rule to do so, a process that could take 18 months.
• The corps has already said temporary, no-cost permits to tap surplus water from North Dakota's Lake Sakakawea will be issued to oil drillers and other industrial users until a national policy is developed to determine how much, if anything, to charge.
• About 100 people attended Monday's meeting in Pierre. The corps, which manages the Missouri River reservoir system, held hearings on the proposal last week in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, all states downstream of the reservoirs. Hearings were scheduled for Tuesday in Bismarck, N.D., and Wednesday in Glasgow, Mont.
• South Dakota officials have said they believe that at least seven existing cities (Continued on page 19)
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