Proponents want to give the "waffle plan" for retaining floodwaters a bigger test in an experiment involving watersheds upstream from Fargo-Moorhead.
The goal is to temporarily hold back 50,000 to 100,000 acre-feet of water in multiple locations along tributaries and the main Red River in the southern basin.
Officials, who met Monday in Fargo to discuss the possible pilot project, must clear several hurdles, including funding. They agreed to pursue the proposal.
Researchers at the Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota came up with the "waffle concept."
The approach would systematically use rural roads and culverts to temporarily store water to reduce the crest of flooding rivers.
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Steven Dalen, a water management consultant from Moorhead working with the EERC researchers, estimates it would cost
$10 million over 10 years to pay landowners for the right to hold back water for short periods.
The proposal was discussed during a special meeting of the Cass County Joint Water Resource District and other officials.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has some conservation programs - primarily involving land-use practices to improve water quality - that could be tapped to pay farmers, officials agreed.
Besides money, however, other problems must be resolved.
One involves who would assume liability for any damage that could be caused to downstream property if a road acting as a dike fails.
Another is to determine whether new standards for small dams would apply to rural roads used as dams.
