FARGO, N.D. (AP) - The Latest on an environmental impact story for the Red River diversion project (all times local):
3 p.m.
The head of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says a revised Red River flood diversion plan “goes a long ways” toward solving problems that have halted the project designed to protect the Fargo and Moorhead, Minnesota area from chronic flooding.
DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr made those comments Monday after the agency released a supplemental environmental impact statement on the so-called Plan B proposed by the Fargo-Moorhead Diversion Authority. The DNR denied a permit for the original project.
The new plan is meant to reduce impacts to land in Richland County in North Dakota and Wilkin County in Minnesota located in a staging area that would hold excess water in times of serious flooding. Landwehr says 8,000 fewer acres will be inundated under the new proposal.
A decision on the permit is expect sometime this winter.
11 a.m.
Minnesota officials have released a draft environmental impact statement on the revised Fargo-Moorhead flood diversion project and say they will decide on a permit application sometime this winter.
The new plan is meant to reduce impacts in Richland County in North Dakota and Wilkin County in Minnesota that, in the original plan, were in the heart of a staging area to hold excess water in times of serious flooding. A federal judge halted the project because it did not have approval from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
The Minnesota DNR will seek public comments on the environmental review until Sept. 27. A public meeting is scheduled Sept. 13 in Moorhead.
Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney says the report looks positive and he’s hopeful it will lead to a permit.
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