Posted on November 8, 2016
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection Project in Ward County. Public comments are being accepted through Dec. 22.
The draft EIS is a separate, yet parallel, effort from the Corps’ Souris River Basin feasibility study, on which the Corps recently took comment in the region.
The draft EIS recommends the plan being proposed by the Souris River Joint Board, which includes about 18.9 miles of new levees, 2.7 miles of new floodwalls, two channel realignments totaling 1.6 miles, two high-flow bypass diversions, 21 transportation closure structures, the reconstruction or modification of six bridges and 121 acres of overbank excavation.
The new flood risk-reduction features would accommodate flows up to 27,400 cubic feet per second (the estimated flow in Minot during the 2011 flood). The average height of flood protection would range from nine to 14 feet along various stretches, with a maximum height of 27 feet at the community of Tierrecita Vallejo.
The probable cost is $589 million to $1 billion, according to the draft EIS. This cost estimate does not consider the likelihood of cost escalation with further design and a construction period of more than 25 years, depending on available funding.
The report also looked at alternatives in creating more upstream storage and non-structural alternatives, such as drawing down reservoir pools further in the spring or increasing releases earlier to reduce peak flood flows. It looked at water diversion tunnel concepts but discarded them as not viable. A Des Lacs tunnel near Burlington was abandoned due to the challenges of upstream storage, while Minot tunnel was estimated to cost up to $5 billion. Floodproofing structures by elevating them or constructing flood walls also was rejected for cost and social reasons.
The review also looked at design alternatives in the proposed flood protection plan.
The draft EIS documents can be found on the St. Paul District website at www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Home/Public-Notices/ and the Minot and Ward County public libraries. Questions concerning the project should be directed to Elliott Stefanik, environmental planning section chief, at 651-290-5260 or Elliott.L.Stefanik@usace.army.mil. Formal comments on the project must be submitted by mail to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District commander, Attention: Regional Planning and Environment Division North, 180 Fifth St. E., Suite 700, St. Paul, MN 55101-1678.
All comments received will be made available to the public and could possibly be posted on a publicly accessible website. Individuals are requested not to include personal privacy information, including home addresses or home phone numbers, in their comments, unless they do not object to such information being made available to the public.
Source: Minot Daily News
