EAST GRAND FORKS, Minn. - Officials from cities and counties downstream of Fargo-Moorhead will meet here Wednesday to create a joint powers agreement on issues such as downstream impacts of a proposed F-M-area diversion project.
The group also aims to promote and develop basinwide flood control efforts such as water retention projects.
The Red River Diversion Downstream Impact Group hopes to sign an agreement by Nov. 1, according to Bill Brudvik, a Mayville, N.D., attorney working with the organization.
The group believes the proposed diversion, as it stands now, "does not adequately identify or mitigate adverse downstream impacts, and indeed, has not even considered adverse impacts to the full extent that should be required by a project of this size and scope," Brudvik wrote in a letter sent earlier this month to cities and counties throughout the valley.
Brudvik said the meeting will provide information about the proposed $1.4 million F-M diversion project, with the hope that most, if not all, local governments downstream of Fargo-Moorhead will sign the agreement by the end of October.
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Earlier this month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decided to extend its F-M diversion project feasibility study to allow for additional analysis of alternatives and impacts. That process could delay the project by up to a year.
In August, the corps released a report indicating the project could add nearly 16 to 21 inches to a Red River crest at the Thompson Bridge, south of Grand Forks, during a 100-year or a 50-year flood respectively.
The report said it could raise the crest along the Red River west of Climax, Minn., by 25 to 29 inches.
In announcing the study extension, the corps said it will look at potential impacts but won't include incorporating major upstream water retention projects outside of the immediate river channel area.
Downstream impact group leaders say upstream water retention and other alternatives should be part of a comprehensive study.
Kevin Bonham is a reporter for the Grand Forks Herald
