Flood Control: Diversion--ND or MN?

[Tatanka]

What's it going to take? ANOTHER major flood? Get a clue people.

[Bison bison]

No.

It's going to take a miracle.

I bet you dollars to donuts we don't see flood protection until my kids are out of high school (they're currently 3 and 4. I'll even take that bet that baby delta ETA 2013 will be an undergrad at NDSU by that time as well.) and more than likely that eastern North Dakota is suffering from a prolonged shortage, not surplus, of water.

I'm from Devils Lake. I've seen this all before.

[tony]

I'm from Devils Lake. I've seen this all before.

The only difference is that hundreds of million of dollars have been spent in Devils Lake while next to nothing has been spent in Fargo. Of course, at Devils Lake the money was spent treating the symptoms rather than finding a permanent cure (I think a permanent solution is something that would stabilize the lakes level - so an outlet and an inlet.)

The Fargo metro will have to be half-destroyed before anything meaningful is done on flood control.

Also, I've got a message for the Grand Forks Herald (you may remember them as the authors of the headine THEIR TURN NOW when Fargo flooded after a freak rain storm): If the freaking waffle plan is so brilliant and effective, tear down your dikes and rely on it as YOUR flood protection.

[stpaulbison]

What good will a diversion project in Fargo do? Devils Lake has 6 feet to rise before it will naturally runoff. Look out down stream as all the nanny state cities get flooded because they were unwilling to approve an outlet due to "water quality" issues.

[met1990]

http://www.inforum.com/event/article...roup/homepage/
FARGO – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will move forward with an eastern alignment of the proposed Fargo-Moorhead diversion, but a path 1½ miles to the west is not off the table.


This is exactly why I never understood Rich Mattern (or anyone outside of Fargo city limits) giving full support to the diversion sales tax. You're basically giving a government entity carte blanche to do whatever they want. I live in West Fargo and the diversion I've already paid for is pretty much in my backyard. I'm not against helping FM pay for flood protection, but when it ends up screwing over everyone else, they can buy out a few more mansions along the river, IMO.

[tony]

Met, gotta disagree. Fargo's flood protection IS West Fargo's flood protection. When West Fargo's mayor was saying the east diversion would stifle West Fargo's growth, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Fargo's growth IS West Fargo's growth and anybody who thinks differently should imagine a wall around West Fargo that doesn't let people inside get to Fargo.

Sure, a flood in Fargo might not do much physical damage to property in West Fargo but it will be every bit as devestating to the economy. Not saying that it couldn't go farther west but if the choice is farther east or nothing and West Fargo says nothing...

Parochialism is the bane of North Dakota planning and, as such, proves that nothing good and plenty bad happens because Fargo and West Fargo are separate towns (at least from this outsider's viewpoint.)

Woohoo! Was worried I couldn't make it a day without posting something bound to get a lot of people ticked off

[Bison"FANatic"]

http://www.inforum.com/event/article...roup/homepage/
FARGO – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will move forward with an eastern alignment of the proposed Fargo-Moorhead diversion, but a path 1½ miles to the west is not off the table.


This is exactly why I never understood Rich Mattern (or anyone outside of Fargo city limits) giving full support to the diversion sales tax. You're basically giving a government entity carte blanche to do whatever they want. I live in West Fargo and the diversion I've already paid for is pretty much in my backyard. I'm not against helping FM pay for flood protection, but when it ends up screwing over everyone else, they can buy out a few more mansions along the river, IMO.

I am with you man. I just couldn't believe how voters flocked to support a second tax without a plan in place. I think this thing is dead mainly because they are flooding out Oxbow and there is alot of money and alot of lawyers that live in oxbow and they will keep it tied up in the courts for decades. One lawsuit after another with everything from environmental impact to eminent domain fights. In the end the lawsuits may not win but delaying it from being built and flooding them is a win for them.

[TheBisonator]

Met, gotta disagree. Fargo's flood protection IS West Fargo's flood protection. When West Fargo's mayor was saying the east diversion would stifle West Fargo's growth, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Fargo's growth IS West Fargo's growth and anybody who thinks differently should imagine a wall around West Fargo that doesn't let people inside get to Fargo.

Sure, a flood in Fargo might not do much physical damage to property in West Fargo but it will be every bit as devestating to the economy. Not saying that it couldn't go farther west but if the choice is farther east or nothing and West Fargo says nothing...

Parochialism is the bane of North Dakota planning and, as such, proves that nothing good and plenty bad happens because Fargo and West Fargo are separate towns (at least from this outsider's viewpoint.)

Woohoo! Was worried I couldn't make it a day without posting something bound to get a lot of people ticked off

Fargo and WF should merge into one city, but too many people in the area are too stupid to realize the benefits to such an idea, so they don't do it.

(Raising the ante on your comments that piss people off, Tony. )

[bisonaudit]

Fargo and WF should merge into one city, but too many people in the area are too stupid to realize the benefits to such an idea, so they don't do it.

(Raising the ante on your comments that piss people off, Tony. )

This is true just about everywhere. I've lived in rural ND (to many townships and to many counties), Fargo (see above), Twin Cities (the 7 county metro should have a single consolidated local government), and DC (total mess of various state federal and local jurisdictions, but for a start Maryland could get away with probably 5 counties instead of 25 and Northern Virgina has 6 local governments where it only needs 1).

Back to ND. The idea when the counties were drawn was that every citizen should be within a day's travel of their county seat. If that's the standard and you redrew the county map today... you wouldn't have any.

[BadlandsBison]

Fargo and WF should merge into one city, but too many people in the area are too stupid to realize the benefits to such an idea, so they don't do it.

(Raising the ante on your comments that piss people off, Tony. )

Another line from the Bisonator Manifesto