New Video Explains Complexities of FM Area Diversion

Greg Thompson (Civil Engineer & Floodplain Manager): [00:00:10] Hi, my name is Greg Thompson. I’m a civil engineer and certified floodplain manager. I have 18 years of water resources experience and I’ve been helping the Fargo-Moorhead area work towards permanent flood protection for the past 12 years. Today I’m going to provide an overview of the FM Area Diversion project and then I’ll step through some of the details on the project operation.

[00:00:27] There are six rivers that contribute to flooding in the Fargo-Moorhead area, all generally moving in a south to north direction. The first river, the largest of them all of course, is the Red River, which creates the backbone of the project. This is the border between North Dakota and Minnesota. The next river is the Wild Rice River, which is a tributary to the Red, producing approximately a third of the flooding upstream of the project. The Sheyenne River contributes water from the west, enters into the project area from the southwest near Horace… the Maple River, Lower Rush River, and Rush River all flow into the Sheyenne River north of West Fargo.

[00:01:22] The diversion project is designed to provide certifiable flood protection from all six flooding sources. There are three major project components: the diversion channel, the southern embankment, and the in-town levees. The diversion channel is being designed and constructed by a private developer through what’s called a public-private partnership or a P3.

[00:02:46] The second component is a southern embankment. The main purpose of the southern embankment is to regulate water flowing into the metro area and direct it into the diversion channel. Another purpose of the southern embankment is to store water within the upstream mitigation area to minimize hydraulic impacts.

[00:04:31] The third component of the project is the in-town levees. These projects include both levees and flood walls constructed by the City of Fargo, City of Moorhead, and also the Diversion Authority. These levees allow the project to be certifiable for a 100-year event while passing a river stage of 37 feet through town.

[00:06:17] The overall goal of the project is to protect the Fargo-Moorhead metro area from extreme flooding. Now I say extreme flooding, that’s because the project will only operate when the flows coming into the project exceed 21,000 cubic feet per second or CFS. So this is roughly equivalent to a 20-year event. There’s a 5% chance of the project operating in any given year.

[00:10:06] After studying flood solutions for the past 12 years, the Diversion Authority has developed a robust project to provide permanent flood protection for the Fargo-Moorhead metro area. I hope this summary gives you an overview of the project as well as an idea on how the project will be operated.