A fresh blanket of snow covers the ground outside Fargo City Hall. From the mayor’s office, Dennis Walaker looks out over the downtown of his city, while working on his computer. He turns and references a pile of trinkets and papers on his desk and says he is “spring cleaning.”
“There’s not enough room for all the stuff. Here’s the 2009 stuff. I just want to get it done so I can function,” he says.
Once the 2009 pile is off his desk, Walaker will have more room for the piles of flood protection information that keep his time and attention. A towering stack of papers includes information about the city’s South Side Flood Protection Plan. Next to it is a pile that holds information about the Flood Diversion Project. While he deals with many topics related to the city of Fargo, Mayor Walaker says 15-20 percent of his job focuses on flood topics. And lately, it’s all about a permanent solution, which has been fast-tracked since the Red River crested at 40.82 in 2009.
PERMANENT FLOOD PROTECTION
The Army Corp of Engineers has studied options and ruled some of them out. They found that a flood control plan in North Dakota does meet the standards for federal funding.
It calls for a 35,000 cubic-feet-per-second diversion on the North Dakota side of the Red River at an estimated cost of $1.4 billion, a larger price tag than a Minnesota diversion. It would also be bigger and more complex. A committee has to decide whether to go with that plan, or with a diversion on the Minnesota side, by April 15, in order to stay on schedule.
Estimates are that it will take 8 to 12 years from start to finish.
“If history is a teacher – it would work. Because we’ve had 12 years between major floods – we had some floods in between but nothing that was insurmountable. The 2009 event was a significant event. Hopefully we’ve got 12 years between now and the next event of significance. That’s the long term,” Walaker says.
On the other side of the Red, Mark Voxland has filled and thrown too many sandbags to count over the years. He’s sandbagged during every major flood event since 1969. But after 2009, he noticed something different.
“I’ve never seen the citizens want something done at the level I’m seeing this time,” Voxland says.
Both mayors have heard the citizens of their communities voice opinions. They want something done. The city leaders know that agreements must be made on a tight timeline.
“You can fight about the details but at the end of the day if we don’t get permanent flood protection and it’s because of local level disagreement, citizens are not going to be happy. They are expecting it to get done,” Voxland says.
Timing is important. Many congressmen and representatives at the state and federal level are on key committees, including Rep. Collin Peterson, (D-M.N.) Chair of the House Agriculture Committee and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, (D-N.D.) who is on the Ways and Means Committee, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) chairs the Budget Committee and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) is on the Committee on Appropriations. Though he won’t seek reelection, he has stated that he will help with permanent flood protection in 2010, his last year in office.
“If it could ever happen, this is the time it should happen,” Voxland says.
Voxland says it’s nice to see how leaders at the local, state and federal levels are unified on the topic. He talks about how long it took Grand Forks-East Grand Forks and Wahpeton-Breckenridge to get permanent flood protection; it was 12 years for each pair of cities.
“We’re a lot bigger than those two sets of communities combined,” Voxland says. “So there’s a lot more to a project in the F-M area – is 12 years realistic, is 8 years realistic? We don’t know.”
Voxland says the variables are narrowing.
“Now it’s just what side of the river, how much flow is going to be funneled off the river and how are we going to pay for it?” Voxland says.
FARGO – SHORT TERM IMPROVEMENTS
“We’ve done a lot of things, we continue to do a lot of things,” Walaker says. “Some people think we don’t do enough.”
Walaker sites significant improvements on the south side of Fargo. University Drive from 40th to 52nd Avenues South has been built up higher and a permanent floodwall is in place. The bridge on South University has been updated and is can now remain open if the river is up to 40 feet, which is considered a 100-year flood.
A series of levees and permanent floodwalls have been put in near the VA Hospital from 15th Avenue north to the Woodcrest addition; and a removable floodwall has been put up near Elm Street. The city has also bought property and 22 homes along the river since the flood of 2009. Eleven homes were bought in 2008.
Walaker says a diversion is really what the city needs.
“It’ll be interesting to see if we can pull it off,” he says.
MOORHEAD – SHORT TERM IMPROVEMENTS
Moorhead has attacked flood protection in two different ways. The city bought out 45 homes in 2009 and will buy 42 more in 2010. City staff also designed and built several gates for storm water outfalls and plans to build more this year if it can get money from the state of Minnesota. The mayor hopes that by November all of the intermediate measures will be in place.
The city staff in Moorhead noticed that the 2009 flood came earlier, was higher and it lasted the shortest amount of time compared to any other major flood.
“We have to have a new strategy for fighting floods,” Voxland says. “We have to be able to get ready faster and we have to be able to rely on less outside help.”
Moorhead prepared 3 million sandbags in 2009. Voxland wants to cut that number in half, in the event of another high flood.
“If we are already at a certain level of protection, we don’t have to get as panicked and we don’t have to expend as much money – we don’t have to use as many assets to protect ourselves, like we did last year,” Voxland says.
SPRING 2010
The National Weather Service has released percentages about possible flooding, which change month to month, depending upon conditions. Walaker says heavy snows can come in March or April, so those percentages will continue to change. He says once you’re into April, the next thing to watch is the temperatures and watch for significant warm ups.
Walaker won’t start worrying about the numbers this early in the season.
“My motto has always been never anticipate trouble,” Walaker says.
