Defending Richland and Wilkin counties July 12th, 2012

How long will the Diversion Authority continue to push this illegal budget-busting boondoggle while people in need of reasonable flood protection remain at risk? The North Dakota Constitution was amended to provide that a public use or public purpose may not include: “… public benefits of economic development, including an increase in tax base, tax revenues, employment or general economic health.”

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Defending Richland and Wilkin counties July 5th, 2012

Fargo cannot expand south as the land south of Davies High School is a natural flood plain that collects water when we have even moderate flooding. Fargo’s solution: protect the extra 40-square miles for development by building dams on the Red and Wild Rice and back up the water that would normally and naturally spread out into the floodplain.

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Defending Richland and Wilkin counties June 28th, 2012

Minnesota Flood Hazard Mitigation Grant funds were not intended to be Fargo development funds for flood- prone areas south of Fargo. There are better solutions that have been ignored, primarily because it may restrict Fargo expanding to the south. I would suggest 52 Street South in Fargo. In the past, that is where Fargo has successfully placed a temporary levee.

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Defending Richland and Wilkin counties June 21st, 2012

After successful prodding by the Fargo Mayor, voters approved an extension of a half-cent sales tax in Fargo. That means Fargo residents will only have to pay 60 percent of additional financing for the dam and ditch. But that will not be enough money. The diversion finance committee is now saying – after the election – they need the Water Resource District to levy special assessments. Good timing.

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Defending Richland and Wilkin counties June 14th, 2012

The Minnesota DNR calls the proposed dam a “high hazard dam,” where failure is likely to cause loss of life. So, now the plan is to dig clay out of a diversion channel, and build a 15-foot-high dam from Comstock to Horace, and expect to provide protection for the metro area. But the problem is the clay under our black topsoil is expansive clay, which means it’s capable of absorbing large amounts of water. The more water it absorbs, the weaker it becomes. When it dries, it contracts and shrinks in size.

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Defending Richland and Wilkin counties May 31st, 2012

The Fargo Moorhead Diversion Authority and its agent, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, continue to obscure the truth about the plan to dam our rivers and flood our farms and communities. They did this by discounting all the dry years prior to 1942 to inflate their average, then hired a few “experts” that agreed with them.

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Craig O. Evans Response to May 24th, 2012 Defending Richland and Wilkin Counties

Craig O. Evans, chief, Plan Formulation Section, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District I am writing in response to the letter to the editor published May 24, 2012, Daily News, by Richland-Wilkin JPA Perry Miller, chairman and Richland County Commissioner – Defending Richland and Wilkin counties; Wahpeton Daily News This response addresses several […]

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