01-18-2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

32 Moving Forward It is clear that a different approach must be taken to meet the original goals of the Task Force. The group was restricted in their deliberations by adhering to features of a project proposal that is in violation of federal and state laws. If federal floodplain guidelines, and Minnesota statues are to be enforced, a successful design must be made on the following basis: 1. Only the most reasonable contiguous developed area must be protected. Fargo, and to some extent, Moorhead, are built in a flood plain. While there was good reason for their location 150 years ago, those reasons do not apply to future growth. Moorhead has virtually unlimited area to grow outside the 100, and 500 hundred year flood plains. Transportation arteries and existing infrastructure and development can be protected within state and federal floodplain laws. The natural floodplain and river channels weren’t determined by state or federal law. It is a waste of the region’s economic resources to design a project with provincial protection instead of regional flood protection. 2. A diversion alignment must remove as little natural floodplain as possible. The identified alignment that has the least floodplain impact is the original plan proposed by the Army Corps on the Minnesota side of the river. If that is not adopted, then any North Dakota route must follow the edges of the contiguous developed area as closely possible to avoid draining the natural floodplain. Rural structure counts used to justify large scale destruction of the flood plain are misleading and easily manipulated. Rural flood plain destruction requires a one to one trade with areas upstream and downstream that do not currently flood. The size of the rural 100 year floodplain transfer has huge impacts on communities, school districts, and townships, with no inexpensive compensation plan identified. 3. Distributed storage should be utilized for protection above the 100 year flood level. The cost of DSA construction can be shared regionally and nationally. A smaller, and less costly diversion can be constructed if it is sized for a 100 year flood. 4. State and local officials should consider a plan that is locally sponsored and constructed. It is clear that the length and complexity of any diversion is going to make the project costly. The Army Corps has constructed two simple diversions of less than five miles in length in the region in the last ten years. Both doubled in cost. Fargo engineers reported to the Task Force that their levee system will double in cost. The Oxbow ring dike and country club enhancement project doubled in cost. There is no reason to expect this project would be any different. The size of the proposed diversion will make an Army Corps directed project financially unsustainable. Thank you for the opportunity to serve on the Task Force.