Richland-Wilkin Joint Powers Authority
Original Publication Date:
February 28th, 2013
Wahpeton Daily News
Republished with permission from: Matt Ness, Fargo resident and board member for the Mndak Upstream Coalition
The sky is not falling. There is no boogeyman and Fargo has nothing to fear from a 100-year flood or even a 500-year flood – if Rep. Al Carlson has anything to say about it.
You can view a map showing the FEMA 100/500 flood impacts on Fargo at http://fmdam.org/exhibitb/. Carlson supports giving Fargo $102 million to bring its internal flood protection structures to the 500-year level.
Thanks to Carlson and the North Dakota House, Fargo will get permanent flood protection without having to depend on either federal congressional approval or funding.
Merely protecting Fargo from flooding however does not secure billions of tax dollars to subsidize Fargo’s southward expansion into the rural flood plain. For that you need a boogeyman or at least the threat of a falling sky. Fargo, through its “million dollar a month” contractors, is attempting to change the facts by cooking the books, the FEMA flood level books.
Fargo leaders are trying to sell the claim that the greatest Fargo flood in recorded history was really not even a 50-year event. All those maps put out by Fargo’s expensive contractors are based on the boogeyman claim that Fargo’s 100-year flood level is three feet higher than the official 39.5-feet level established by FEMA.
Check the map and check the facts. The sky is not falling and Fargo will be well protected even if we ignore Chicken Little and follow the sober, fiscally conservative leadership of Fargo’s most influential representative.
Views: 248