Posted on February 15, 2016
A planned $2 billion flood control project for the Fargo-Moorhead area got a $5 million infusion of cash from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week.
The Fargo-Moorhead Diversion project has been a point of conflict between Minnesota and North Dakota. The project has been hit with several lawsuits and is on hold until Minnesota completes an environmental review, which, among other things, will look at plans for digging a 36-mile trench around Fargo to divert floodwater and building a dam across the Red River that could flood Minnesota farmland.
The $5 million is a fraction of the project’s $1.8 billion budget, but is enough to begin work on the diversion’s first inlet channels. Those funds will not be available until at least July, after the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources completes its environmental review in the spring and makes a final permitting decision this summer.
