Corps of Engineers releases final Environmental Assessment package for changes to proposed Fargo, N.D./Moorhead, Minn., diversion channel

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Col. Daniel C. Koprowski, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, signed a ‘Finding of No Significant Impact’ for a final Environmental Assessment, or EA, Sept. 19, completed for the proposed Fargo, N.D./Moorhead, Minn., Metropolitan Area Flood Risk Management Project.

The proposed project will involve the construction of a 36-mile long diversion channel located in North Dakota that will direct floodwater around the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area. If built, the project will protect more than 200,000 people and 70 square miles of infrastructure in the communities of Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo, Horace and Harwood.

Since the completion of the Environmental Impact Statement in July 2011, the Corps, the cities of Fargo and Moorhead and the Flood Diversion Board of Authority have been evaluating measures to improve the project and reduce impacts and costs. The proposed changes to the Environmental Impact Statement in a supplemental EA were released in June of this year. The EA currently being released is the final version of this supplemental EA.

This Final EA addresses modifications to the project and includes responses to public comments received on the draft EA, the signed Clean Water Act Section 404(b)(1) Evaluation Supplement and the signed Finding of No Significant Impact. The documents will be posted to the Corps of Engineers website, http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/, as well as the Fargo-Moorhead Diversion Authority website, www.FMDiversion.com/library.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, serves the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood damage reduction, water and wetlands regulation, recreation sites and disaster response. It contributes around $175 million to the five-state district economy. The 700 employees work at more than 40 sites in five upper-Midwest states. For more information, see www.mvp.usace.army.mil. 

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