McPherson, Kathryn M.Dyck, Karen Angela2023-12-082023-12-082023-12-08https://hdl.handle.net/10315/41785In response to the repeated droughts of the early twentieth century in northeastern North Dakota, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation planned a large-scale diversion project called the Garrison Diversion Unit (GDU). The GDU, a multipurpose engineering project, received its first approval in 1944 promising to redirect water from the North Dakota segment of the Missouri River through a system of dams, reservoirs, and canals for the purpose of irrigation, hydroelectricity, industrial and municipal water supply, expansion of recreation areas, and enhancement of fish and wildlife areas. The engineers who planned the GDU failed to consider the environmental impacts or international political implications of the diversion of the project’s irrigation return flows from one watershed to another and across the border into Canada. Although the project itself remains unfinished to this day, the GDU debates that raged between 1940 and 1977 provide invaluable insights into the professionalization of environmental experts, international water diplomacy, and the role of the public in the realization of mega water projects. From the GDU’s inception, various groups and individuals have contested this project. This dissertation examines how knowledge of water, technology, and public policy was mobilized in various sites of debate during a critical period in the development of environmental policy in America. I analyzed three sites of the debate: the promotion of the project by its leading engineering figurehead, the scientific and environmental organizations and committees that debated the environmental impacts of the project, and the international commission that engaged local users for the first time to determine the project’s future. I found that economic, social, political, and cultural arguments and language, rather than scientific evidence, shaped the dialogue, allowing both experts and non-experts to engage in the debate using various types of knowledge. This dissertation argues that the GDU, the reports it generated, and the talk surrounding it did not only describe the physical engineering edifices being proposed; they also and perhaps more importantly, revealed the GDU as an envirotechnical system that provided experts and non-experts alike with opportunities to communicate, translate, and challenge one another’s ideas about technology and the environment.Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.Environmental scienceHistoryRhetoricElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2023-12-08American historyApplication of science to public decision makingBorder watersBoundary Waters TreatyCanadian historyCold War historyCouncil for Environmental QualityDevelopment of environmental policyDevelopment of public policyDiscourse AnalysisDoubt mongeringEcological contamination of international watersEnvironmental activismEnvironmental consciousnessEnvirotech historyEnvironmental historyEnvironmental Impact StatementEnvironmental policy developmentEnvironmental pollution governanceEvolution of transboundary environmental law and governanceGarrison Diversion historyGarrison Diversion UnitFact uncertaintyFort Berthold ReservationHistory of American westHuman ecology historyHydroelectricityImplementation of National Environmental Policy ActInteractions of society and technology and the environmentInternational Garrison Diversion Study BoardInternational geopoliticsInternational Joint Commission historyInternational riversInternational water conflictInternational water governanceInternational water rightsIrrigation projectsIrrigation return flows and international watersLake SakakaweaMcClusky CanalManitoba Environmental CouncilManitoba historyMega water projectsMilo HoisveenMissouri River WatershedModernization of American agricultural industryMultipurpose water management projectsMunicipal water supplyNational Audubon SocietyNational Environmental Policy ActNorth Dakota historyNorth Dakota State Water CommissionNorth Dakota State Water EngineerPick Sloan Missouri River BasinPolicy makers and stakeholdersProfessionalization of environmental expertsPublic consultationPublic hearingsQuestioning our expertsRed River WatershedRhetoric analysisRelationship between science and policyRise of environmental expertiseRise of environmental scienceRise of scientific expertiseRiver engineeringRole of public testimonyScience and technology studiesScientific debatesScientific expertiseScientific knowledgeScientific uncertaintySelling authoritySouris River BasinTechnocratTechnologyTechnology to control the environmentThe Institute of EcologyTrust in expertiseTwentieth centuryU.S. Bureau of ReclamationU.S. Army Corps of EngineersU.S. Fish and Wildlife ServicesWater resource managementWildlife conservation