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Many farms were hard hit by the flood, with losses in equipment, livestock, and property amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. Since the flood, small farmers have struggled with ongoing grain price problems, and have disagreed over how water management proposals put forward to deal with future flooding may affect their futures.
Overhaul of State
Ditch 83 Divides Northwestern Minnesota Residents Much of what we know as Minnesota's fertile farmland would still be swamp had it not been drained. A hundred years ago it was common practice to dig ditches and dredge rivers, and today those ditches and rivers keep the land arable. But conservationists say increasingly it's a practice out of sync with environmental biology; and a proposal for a major ditch overhaul in northwestern Minnesota has divided local residents. The Rodahl place looks like most other flatland farms north of Thief River Falls: wide snowswept fields separated by banked roads and drainage ditches holding a few feet of rapidly freezing water. Darrold Rodahl himself is lean, about forty, with a face showing years of work in persistent winds. Rodahl says, "We're looking at my barley field of about a hundred acres that drowned out, completely drowned out, the first few days of July. The water was unable to run out the 83 system because it's gone into such disrepair. It would not take the water from the field." The problem Rodahl says, is State Ditch 83, also called the Thief River: it's clogged with beaver dams, silt, and trees that have grown up on its banks and fallen in. It takes a long time for spring runoff to run off; and if the ditch is full and the fields are soaked; a day's hard rain can work ruin. So last summer Rodahl and 15 of his neighbors signed a petition asking the Red Lake Watershed District to re-dredge Ditch 83. Speed up the water, rescue the farms. Rodahl says, "Every drainage system needs repair sooner or later. It it doesn't happen, we stand to be flooded for more duration as the system continues to deteriorate. Our land will become less and less valuable to us. Without drainage, there is no value in it." Drainage, farmers point out, is what turned this area from swamp to productive acreage in the first place. Starting in the late 1800s, massive ditching projects drained hundreds of thousands of acres. The ditches emptied into rivers, which carried runoff downstream. Sometimes the rivers themselves were dredged - deepened, their beds smoothed out - to carry more water........... |
A Minnesota Public Radio broadcast five months after the flood focused on drainage issues and disagreements between farmers and water management advocates.
Watershed district approves impoundment that might jeopardize flood-control project By Jaime DeLage, Herald staff writer WARREN, MN - City leaders here believe a decision by the Middle River-Snake River Watershed District could scuttle their chances of completing a proposed flood-control project. Warren's flood-control project has been in the works for about 10 years. It comes in two parts: a 5-mile diversion to speed the Snake River around the south edge of town, and an upstream impoundment to trap river water during the peak of a flood. Watershed District directors approved an impoundment plan Monday night. But 2.6 miles of abandoned river channel would be within the boundaries of the impoundment - a piece of real estate that could jeopardize approval of the entire project. The Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Natural Resources, and the Board of Water and Soil Resources are less likely to permit an impoundment including the river channel, said Dick Nelson, Warren's mayor. That throws the whole $14 million project into question. "With no permit, there's no funding," Nelson said. Avoid the river Nelson and the City Council wanted the Watershed District to approve basically the same impoundment, minus the abandoned river channel. The channel is an old section of the Snake River cut off by the railroad around the turn of the century. "They understood before going into that meeting what the consequences would be," Nelson said. "The flood-control project will not go through under the plan they have endorsed." Half or more of the project would be paid for with federal funds. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources would pay around 30 percent and the rest of the cost would fall upon the city and Watershed District. District engineer Ron Adrian said he doesn't think the situation is as dire as city officials say. "Some people are suggesting this impoundment is not (permissible)," Adrian said. "I think the concerns can be worked out and I think they will be worked out. We're one of the sponsors. We want to get the project done and get it done in the best interest of the community." The district directors want to include the river channel primarily to add more water storage. Without the 120 acres surrounding the river channel, the impoundment would store a maximum of about 6,700 acre-feet of flood water. Adding the river channel would increase storage by about 600 acre-feet, Adrian said. Adrian will meet with representatives of the Corps and the DNR as soon as possible, he said, and he expects to get an opinion back from them within a week or two. One of those representatives, DNR hydrologist Nate Dalager, said the agencies probably won't let the impoundment swallow the old riverbed when it would work nearly as well without. "That option simply does not meet permitting criteria and would cost more money for a minimal amount more storage," Dalager said. No big difference Excluding the river channel from the impoundment would increase the flow of the Snake River in Warren during a 100-year flood - but only by about 49 cubic feet per second, Dalager said. "You wouldn't even need to upsize the diversion. As far as Warren is concerned, there is no difference," he said. But to the DNR, the difference is 2.6 miles of potential river habitat. The department wants to get the Snake to flow back through its old channel again, to restore it to its natural curves. Those curves also would store water during a flood, though not as much as the impoundment proposed by the Watershed District. The City Council and Watershed Board both plan to meet tonight to discuss the issue. The council will meet at the First American Bank at 6:15 p.m. and then adjourn at 7 p.m. to join the watershed meeting at the district offices. "I think this can be worked out," Mayor Nelson said Wednesday. "Probably not tomorrow night, but I'm confident eventually this will be worked out." |
In Warren, Minnesota, citizens and Army Corps' engineers debate the merits of a plan to reduce flooding in that area by creating a diversion channel. Since the flood, decisions that involve land use and water management have received ever greater scrutiny -- and some differences of opinion. Article from the Grand Forks Herald, July 18, 1998.
| "The thing that we're most concerned about is the drastic
changes in rural population. As you go north of Grand Forks the flood plain is much,
much wider. I know that there are people up there who wish to get a buy out for
their farm properties. But in order to build again, they'll have to move six, seven,
sometimes twelve miles to the east or west in order to get out of the flood plain.
If they get the buy outs that they want, there could be townships that will not have any
residents. There also were many people who lost buildings with the snow and the flood, and then not to get a crop because of disease problems - scab in wheat and root rot in sugar beets - it's hard to be hopeful." Jon Evert, Clay County, on the flood's impact on rural residents, January, 1998. |
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Since the flood, the number of farms that have gone bust has increased dramatically. The trend is moving steadily toward more larger farms, many of them cooperative operations. The smaller family farm is on the decline. Auction notice from The Forum, 1999.
