FARGO -- The Red River Basin Commission is targeting two sites for small dams in Roberts County, S.D., and more could be possible in Minnesota and North Dakota with a federal program that's taking applications now.
The dams could benefit residents in Fargo-Moorhead and other cities downstream by holding back water before it reaches the Red River, said Lance Yohe, executive director of the commission.
"We have willing landowners," Yohe said of the two South Dakota sites. "We just have to see if we can get the technical stuff lined up in the time we have."
The dams would be funded through the panel's five-year, $25.5 million proposal to the Agricultural Water Enhancement Program.
The commission received about $1.38 million last year through AWEP, as well as $3 million from the Natural Resources Conservation Service's Environmental Quality Incentives Program. The money was used to build ring dikes around farmsteads in the basin in Minnesota and North Dakota.
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This year's allocation -- $2.61 million so far -- will be spent on five strategies designed to improve water quality and reduce erosion.
One strategy is "water flow retardation," holding water in larger amounts for longer periods of time. It targets small dams able to hold 10 to 1,000 acre-feet of water or more. An acre-foot is 1 foot of water over an acre of land.
Contracts between landowners and NRCS must be signed and in place by July 2. At that time, the federal government will reallocate unspent AWEP funds to make sure they get used before the fiscal year runs out in September, which could mean a lot more money for dams and other projects, Yohe said.
T he commission has identified a number of steps to reduce flows by 20 percent on the mainstem Red River from Wahpeton to the international border, and the AWEP projects will help achieve that goal, Yohe said.
The commission and the Bois de Sioux Watershed District recently hired the district's engineer to conduct water flow modeling in the district. The Bois de Sioux River joins the Otter Tail River in Wahpeton to form the Red River.
The study identified 26 potential water storage sites ranging from 993 acre-feet to 18,000 acre-feet, said the engineer, Charlie Anderson of JOR Engineer in Alexandria, Minn.
Anderson said if all 26 storage projects had been in place in 1997, it would have reduced the Red River's flow through Fargo-Moorhead by 9 percent.
The largest of the storage projects, the North Ottawa Impoundment Project, is already in place near Elbow Lake, Minn. Fargo also is looking at participating in the Redpath water retention project, which would hold 16,200 acre-feet near Wheaton, Minn.
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To make a significant impact on Red River flood levels, small-scale retention projects will need to be built in all of the contributing watersheds, not just the Bois de Sioux, Anderson said. For example, the two South Dakota sites would reduce flows into the Wild Rice River in Sargent County, N.D., Yohe said.
"We're kind of operating under the general principle now that if we can hold water coming into the valley, particularly on the south end, that should have some beneficial impact" for downstream communities, Yohe said.
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