1. Red River Basin Water Study - Laserfiche WebLink

Frequently Asked Questions In upcoming newsletters, we will post questions frequently asked of our EERC project team, along with the answers. You are welcome to call, write, or e-mail us with your questions. What about the impacts on agriculture? Many of the potential storage areas available in the Red River Basin are located on privately owned agricultural lands, and agriculture is the backbone of the region's economy. The WafflesM project team recognizes that any practice that adversely affects agriculture is not in the best interest of our economy or our community. Therefore, one of the key components of this project is the investigation of the effects of water storage on agricultural land. Past studies have shown that temporary water storage prior to planting can have both positive and negative effects. For example, the enhanced soil moisture that may result from implementation of the project can be beneficial to crop yields. In fact, a study done by the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Extension Service for the North Dakota Wetlands Trust has shown this to be the case. We also have anecdotal evidence to indicate that standing water in the early spring can result in frost leaving the soils more quickly and may allow farmers to till the soil earlier than areas that did not have standing water present for a short time. The most obviously negative impact could be a reduçtion in crop yields if there is a delay in planting. The economics of any agricultural-related impacts are being evaluated as part of the WaffleSM project. If you hold back the water in one area, won't that flood another landowner's field? No. If the WaffleSM concept were implemented, culverts would ultimately be fitted with overflow standpipes that would allow for precise control of the elevation of the stored water. The elevation control would allow water to be stored on the parcel of land while still allowing water from other upgradient areas to flow through the drainage system. î 0......._, Would farmers receive payments for storing water on agricultural lands? Because the focus of the current project is to determine the feasibility of the WaffleSM plan, it is impossible to anticipate what kind of payments (if they are needed) would be made to landowners for storing water on their lands. There are simply too many variables at this point, such as the amount and types of land needed, the length of storage, the effects on productivity, etc., to allow us to speculate about what types of compensation landowners will receive for storing water. These questions will be answered by the work now under way, and one of the products of this project will be to supply policymakers with the information they need to develop plans for compensation if that is necessary. One of the guiding principles of the project is that methods can only be employed if they have a positive, or at least neutral, impact on agriculture and the region's economy in general. If it is determined that the WaffleSM is feasible, who would implement the plan, and is participation mandatory? Traditionally, large-scale water management has always taken a command-and-control approach. Too often, the traditional approach relied on heavy-handed legal tools like eminent domain and heavy equipment like bulldozers to accomplish water management goals. These tactics often subjugated the rights of individual landowners for the "greater good' as defined by the government, sometimes resulting in harm to the very communities and individuals the projects were designed to protect. Because the WaffleSM and other basinwide approaches rely on the cooperation of the entire region, such heavy-handed tactics should never be used to implement the project. A major portion of the feasibility study currently under way is designed to assess landowner desires and cooperation. The results of the WaffléM project will be shared with local landowners, water boards, watershed districts, county commissions, and other local groups for their review and assessment. They will be free to adopt the plan if they see sufficient benefit or reject it in favor of other strategies. We anticipate that the plan will be implemented for portions of the basin first, and other portions will adopt it when they see the benefits. In any case, we support local control and basinwide cooperation and coordination as the only way for the WaffleSM to be implemented. ,< J