South Dakota’s Erbele hired as North Dakota’s state engineer

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - A longtime South Dakota environmental engineer has been hired as North Dakota’s state engineer.

North Dakota’s Water Commission on Wednesday hired Garland Erbele as its top administrator.

Erbele will succeed state engineer Todd Sando, who announced last month that he will retire by the end of June.

Erbele will be North Dakota’s 18th state engineer.

As the state engineer, Erbele will serve as secretary to the State Water Commission, which is overseen by a nine-member board, including the governor, who serves as its chairman.

Erbele worked for 35 years at the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources. He also was the agency’s lead technical negotiator on water rights issues.

Erbele is from Lehr, North Dakota. He has a master’s degree in environmental engineering from North Dakota State University.

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This version corrects spelling of name.