DIVERSION DISCUSSION: Dam in Drayton, N.D., will mitigate fish passage limitations

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FARGO – One feature of the Red River diversion project isn’t remotely close to Fargo-Moorhead.

About 210 river miles north on the Red, F-M taxpayer dollars will help fund modifications to the dam near Drayton, N.D.

Drayton, dubbed the “Catfish Capital of the North,” is 30 miles south of the Canadian border.


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The town is home to one of several low-head dams on the Red River that are used to control water supply in the valley.

As a consequence, though, the Drayton dam currently limits the ability of fish to naturally pass down the river.

But with the F-M diversion, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hoping to kill two birds with one stone: improve fish passage at Drayton to offset impacts to fish passage that will be caused by the diversion project.

Federal law requires the Army Corps and local stakeholders to remedy any environmental impacts the project is expected to have.

The corps projects that the features of the F-M diversion will reduce fish passage where the channel and levees intersect with the Red and Wild Rice rivers, south of the metro area.

Officials aim to mitigate that problem farther north on the Red River, by converting or rebuild the Drayton dam to better accommodate fish, corps project manager Aaron Snyder said.

According to the corps’ final environmental impact statement on the F-M diversion project, the Drayton dam is one of several mitigation features that will be needed to address fish passage impacts from the diversion.

Of 13 possible fish passage sites the corps looked at to offset the diversion’s impacts, “the Drayton dam provides the greatest environmental output for the assumed cost,” the corps wrote.

The Drayton project is estimated to cost $6.5 million to build and $314,000 in annual operation and maintenance costs.

A team of Army Corps engineers will begin designing the new Drayton dam this month, as part of other ongoing design efforts for the Red River diversion project.

If work on the Drayton site goes to schedule, the project could be ready for construction sometime in summer 2013.

However, as with any other facet of the Red River diversion project, congressional authorization and funding are needed before construction can begin.

Have a question about the proposed Red River diversion, or want to recommend a topic you’d like to see addressed in an upcoming column?
Send an e-mail to Forum reporter Kristen Daum at kdaum@forumcomm.com (Subject: Diversion Discussion) or write to Kristen Daum c/o The Forum, P.O. Box 2020, Fargo, ND 58107.
(Please include your name, town and a phone number to reach you for verification.)

Diversion Authority’s new hardship committee to review applications

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FARGO – A new subcommittee of the Diversion Authority can start considering buyout applications from residents who are already feeling negative impacts from Red River diversion plans.

The authority approved appointments Thursday to three new subcommittees – including the Hardship Review Committee, which will weigh applications from residents seeking a buyout under the authority’s hardship policy.

The policy, approved last month, applies only to residents who would otherwise be bought out because of the project but suffer a medical condition that requires them to relocate now.

Residents south of Fargo-Moorhead are having trouble selling their homes because of the threat of the diversion project, which stands to displace several upstream communities because of a dam feature associated with the project.

Residents seeking a buyout under the hardship policy must submit an application – including a doctor’s certification of their condition – to the Diversion Authority.

Applications and a copy of the policy are available online at www.fmdiversion.com/library.asp.

The newly formed Hardship Review Committee will consider applications and make recommendations to the Early Acquisition Subcommittee.

If approved, applicants will be put on an early buyout list, but buyouts will be offered only when the Diversion Authority has the funding.

Cass County Administrator Keith Berndt said Thursday that five applications had been received so far.

However, only two are from residents who meet the criteria of having a medical condition and living in the affected area of the project, he said.

There’s no timeline as to how swiftly the applications will be handled, but the Hardship Review Committee plans to meet within the next month to address the initial claims.

The committee is comprised of local leaders, administrative officials, project consultants and medical experts.

Those appointed are:

  • Program Administrator: Cass County Auditor Mike Montplaisir
  • Administrative advisory and program management staff: Berg, Dodds, Morris, and Cass County Administrator Keith Berndt
  • Physician: Dr. John Baird of Fargo Cass Public Health
  • Social worker: Chip Ammerman, director of Cass County Social Services

Also Thursday, the Diversion Authority approved appointments to the Agricultural Advisory and Early Acquisition subcommittees, both of which will report to the Land Management Committee.

Those boards will deal with similarly specific mitigation issues that result from the project’s impacts.

The Agricultural Advisory Subcommittee will “assist in the development of policies and procedures to mitigate project-related impacts to agriculture.” Members are:

  • Land Management Committee representatives: Diversion Authority member Rodger Olson, Fargo administrator Pat Zavoral, Clay County Commissioner Jon Evert and Fargo engineer Mark Bittner
  • Agricultural community representatives: Mark Askegaard and Matt Ness of Minnesota, and Mark Brodshaug, Mark Ottis, Scott Nipstad and Tyler Odegaard of North Dakota.
  • Administrative advisory and program management staff: Clay County engineer Dave Overbo and Jon Diebel and Mark Lambrecht of CH2M Hill.

The Early Acquisition Subcommittee will “assist in early acquisition policy development and implementation of early acquisition policies.” Members are:

  • Land Management Committee representatives: Zavoral, Cass County planner Tim Solberg and Moorhead engineer Bob Zimmerman
  • Legal advisers: West Fargo attorney Brian Neugebauer and assistant Fargo attorney Nancy Morris
  • Administrative advisory and program management staff: Diebel, Clay County Administrator Brian Berg, Moorhead administrator Mike Redlinger, and Eric Dodds of AE2S.

OFFICIALS PROPOSE DRAFT LAND MANAGEMENT PLAN

Members of the Diversion Authority’s Land Management Committee are reviewing a draft version of a detailed plan that will guide how land will be acquired for the Red River diversion project and how individual property owners might be compensated.

The Land Management Committee will comment on the draft plan before it’s presented to the full Diversion Authority sometime this summer.

The Land Management Plan “will be a living document, updated periodically as the project advances and policy decisions are made,” said Jon Diebel of CH2M Hill, the authority’s contracted project management team.

Officials expect land acquisitions to occur across several years ending no later than the end of 2018.

Excluding hardship cases, officials start buyouts only after the $1.78 billion project is authorized by Congress, which isn’t expected until at least 2013.

According to the draft plan, officials are seeking to acquire land that affects 1,451 parcels and 831 individual property owners.

The land in question includes the diversion footprint itself and the controversial upstream staging area, where 1,116 parcels of land will be affected by temporary water storage south of the channel.

Land acquisition alone is estimated to make up $255 million of the total $1.78 billion project cost.

Throughout the design, acquisition and construction phases of the project, officials will work from the northern end of the channel southward.

FEMA rules force removal of portion of levee in Oxbow

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LOCAL LEADERS SAY FEDERAL LAW ‘IMPRACTICAL’

OXBOW, N.D. – A permanent levee here isn’t so permanent anymore, thanks to federal regulations that area officials describe as “impractical.”

Contractors hired by Cass County removed two sections of Oxbow’s levee this week, after the Federal Emergency Management Agency threatened “severe sanctions” if the county kept the levee intact.

“The unfortunate thing is Oxbow was just acting in common sense” by fortifying the levee, Cass County Administrator Keith Berndt said. “FEMA’s rules don’t make sense, but it is the law.”

Since 2009, Oxbow leaders had worked to turn an emergency levee along the Red River into a permanent fixture that would protect this town of 305 residents.

The levee was constructed on land bought out by Cass County. However, some of the buyouts were supplemented with dollars from FEMA, which meant any use of the land had to comply with FEMA’s rules.

Federal law prohibits permanent levees on land bought out with federal money, so FEMA officials demanded this spring that local leaders tear down pertinent sections of Oxbow’s levee.

Berndt said the county held off FEMA as long as it could but was denied an extension to work out a solution.

“Very threatening correspondence” from FEMA indicated the county would lose future federal aid if it didn’t comply, Berndt said.

“As unfortunate as the process is, and as impractical as it is, we didn’t really have any option on the matter,” Berndt said.

Oxbow Mayor Jim Nyhof said he’s disappointed with FEMA’s decision.

“There are certainly circumstances that merit consideration, and no consideration was given,” Nyhof said.

The gaps are only a fraction of the levee, so crews could fill them back in within a day if a flood threat arose, Berndt said.

“Ninety percent of the levee is still there, there are just a couple of spots where there are openings in it now,” Berndt said.

North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven introduced legislation last year that would give FEMA more flexibility in how its dollars are spent, including on permanent levees.

The Senate passed the legislation in January, and the bill is still being considered in the House.

The Forum requests attorney general’s opinion on Diversion Authority meetings

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FARGO – The Forum filed a request today with North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, seeking his opinion about whether informal task forces acting on behalf of the Diversion Authority must hold open meetings.

The request was prompted after Diversion Authority leaders said the board’s Executive Leadership Council – which they described as an unofficial advisory board – is not subject to North Dakota’s open meetings law.

State law requires government boards – or any of their subcommittees – to hold meetings in public.

After The Forum published a story Wednesday on the topic, diversion officials allowed local media to attend the executive council’s meeting on Thursday.

Cass County Administrator Keith Berndt wrote Thursday in an email: “While we do not believe this meeting is required to be an open meeting by North Dakota statute, we remain committed to conducting business in an open and transparent environment.”

The Executive Leadership Council is one of several informal working groups the Diversion Authority has unofficially endorsed to work on the Red River diversion.

With its request, The Forum wishes to resolve the legal question that remains about whether such boards must adhere to North Dakota’s open meetings law, as the Diversion Authority itself and its official subcommittees do.

Read The Forum’s request:

TheForum_AGopinionrequest

DIVERSION DISCUSSION: Channel design slated to ramp up this summer

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FARGO – Initial design work on the Red River diversion is progressing on time and under budget so far, and it’s about to get a lot more intense.

Aaron Snyder, project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, told local leaders last week that designs for the northern portion of the channel near the outlet south of Argusville are on track and the work is costing about 40 percent less than budgeted.

“The team is definitely committed to ensuring the schedule remains a top priority,” Snyder said.

This summer, design teams from across the country will start work designing other portions of the channel north of Interstate 94, as well as a mitigation feature on the Red River at Drayton, N.D.

To prepare for that design work, 56 Army Corps engineers from across the country were in town for two days last week to get a hands-on look at the land where the Red River diversion will eventually be built around Fargo.

The corps engineers who are assisting in the design effort hail from five of the corps’ district offices nationwide, specifically those based in St. Paul, St. Louis, Mo., Memphis, Tenn., Vicksburg, Miss. and Rock Island, Ill.

St. Paul District Commander Col. Michael Price said the visit was beneficial to the teams and they’re “eager to get started” on the channel design.

“They were able to visualize the entire alignment and what we will be constructing in the future,” Price said Thursday on a conference call with local leaders and corps officials.

The 50-plus corps engineers working on the Red River diversion project are separate from the host of local engineers and consultants who are also contributing to the $200 million worth of design work that’s necessary for the project.

“We’re going to be ramping up and having many, many more folks in production,” Snyder said of the impending work.

Local and federal engineers are designing the diversion channel from north to south in a process that will take several years and likely overlap with the first stages of construction.

At the earliest, crews could break ground in spring 2013, but that schedule hinges on congressional authorization and funding, which isn’t likely until at least the end of this year.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The full Diversion Authority board and its subcommittees will gather for their regular monthly meetings this week.

One action to watch for is who will be appointed to serve on the authority’s new subcommittees that are tailored to deal with mitigation of impacts the project is already causing rural residents.

Authority Chairman Darrell Vanyo said the board plans to determine this week who’ll sit on the Agricultural Policy Committee, the Early Acquisition Committee and the Hardship Committee, boards the authority created last month.

Once formed, the Hardship Committee can start reviewing applications from residents south of Fargo-Moorhead who need to move for medical reasons but can’t sell their homes because of the diversion project.

The Diversion Authority meets at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in Fargo City Hall, 200 3rd St. N. The meeting is open to the public.

Have a question about the proposed Red River diversion, or want to recommend a topic you’d like to see addressed in an upcoming column?
Send an e-mail to Forum reporter Kristen Daum at kdaum@forumcomm.com (Subject: Diversion Discussion) or write to Kristen Daum c/o The Forum, P.O. Box 2020, Fargo, ND 58107.
(Please include your name, town and a phone number to reach you for verification.)