In the wake of Fargo’s Fizzling Fake Flood of 2020, Fargo City Commissioner and Deputy Mayor Dave Piepkorn used disinformation on Joel Heitkamp’s News and Views platform to blast farmers for flood problems created by reckless city planning.
| Listen to the education level in Dave Piepkorn’s rant. |
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That pretty much sums up everything that Dave Piepkorn knows about drain tile and flooding.
The crux of the issue is Piepkorn’s rabid confirmation bias that the pro-dam and diversion ilk employ to advance Fargo’s development plan disguised as flood control.
Piepkorn was >> this close << to getting it, but then tripped all over his indignant arrogance to muck it all up and try to distract attention away from the “state of emergency flood declarations” that were being peddled just a few weeks ago.
So Dave, LISTEN UP – you two-bit hustler…
There have been several studies done on the effects of subsurface drainage (drain tile) and there needs to be more. But for “YOU” to issue a blanket statement about farmers and drain tiling with nothing more than talking points to push your political agenda underscores your ignorance about the subject.
This 10 page February 2014 Journal of Hydrology article (read more…) based on a study conducted via NDSU is a good primer to get you started.
Here is another article touching on 15 Frequently Asked Questions About Subsurface (Tile) Drainage (read more…), a collaboration between NDSU, UMN and SDSU.
Y’see Dave, it would take a full inventory of how many square miles of drain tile are installed upstream of Fargo, what the total peak discharge of said drain tile is and some very complex calculations and modeling to determine the water time to hydro-curve at the Fargo USGS gauge to support your dubious claim that farmers and drain-tiling are causing Fargo’s flooding.
Since that study does not currently exist – you’re making false claims based on your personal confirmation bias and group-think of those people you should be social distancing yourself from.
Why not champion more understanding of how drain tile benefits the region with experts in drain tile and agriculture ~ rather than the peanut gallery looking for someone to blame for the net effects of irresponsible Fargo development?
| Here is Joel Heitkamp’s interview with Dave Piepkorn |
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“In a nutshell”, YES, Fargo needs to complete permanent internal flood protection to protect the city that exists. So, it begs the question, why has Fargo dragged its feet for over 10 years on completing internal flood protection for the environs that you are feigning “what if” pandemic and sandbagger concern over?
Fargo and the FMDA (Fargo Moorhead Diversion Authority) have spent more money out of pocket on the dam and diversion project than former Mayor Dennis Walaker testified that it would take to fully protect the city with internal flood protection. How is this possible, if it were not for the darker elements of Fargo’s elite pulling strings and you being gullible enough to sell their kool-aid?
Dave Piepkorn is a hypocrite and it’s very easily proven.
If Piepkorn expects farmers to shut off drain tile systems to stop the conveyance of water during a “flood”, then Piepkorn should expect Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo to also stop every sump pump, storm drain and city lift pump that conveys water to the river “during a flood” as well.
Just to be clear, the over hyped Top 5 2020 flood currently ranks about number 26, at 28.23 feet. Meaning there have been 25 greater floods in history than Fargo’s “Top 5” Fake Flood of 2020.
Here are the cold hard facts! No matter how much water is pumped from field drain tile systems, it cannot pump more water than the existing capacity of field ditches, culverts and county drains can carry. When the ditches are full, the result would be just recycling water back onto fields and spinning the power meter.
Urban sump pumps, storm drains and city lift pumps on the other-hand are designed to evacuate water into the river and foster encroachment development into natural flood plain areas that exist below natural flood levels. Fargo never had the foresight to establish enough internal water storage area to buffer (attenuate) the amount of water displaced by the city footprint.
If you take into account the entire metro area, over 65,280 acres are essentially drain tiled with roof tops, sump pumps, driveways, sidewalks, roadways, storm drains, city ditch drains and lift pumps. Those hard surfaces prevent the soil from absorbing water and augment the Red River flows and flood levels.
Additionally, Fargo and the USACE plan to remove water from nearly 260 sq miles with the FMDA project and push it onto upstream and downstream stakeholders without just compensation or genuine representation – yet we don’t hear Dave Piepkorn complaining about that.
Y’know, Dave.., maybe you should stick to what you know…, which is profiling new Americans and doling out tax incentives to companies that don’t need them on the backs of taxpayers that can’t afford the tax burden so you can continue brown nosing mayor Mahoney and the rest of the diversion ilk, while you cross your fingers hoping you’ll get endorsed as mayoral successor.
That would be the essence of going from bad to worse… “Lord help Fargo”
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If Mr.Piepkorn is so upset about the farmers drain tile moving water during a flood that we are not having at this time, that pretty much tells me that it is a one way street when it come to water he does not care about sending water to the people to the south of Fargo by way of the diversion but he can’t handle drain tile water running from the farm fields just suck up butter cup
Personally, I feel the Diversion Authority is irresponsible. It appears that their only interest is getting Federal Dollars. The extreme costs of buyouts at the Oxbow Country Club area are a PRIME example of the “good ‘ol Buddy System. I want the same treatment (buying my house at 125% of assessed value). Pathetic.