31 Jul 2020

Construction reaches new heights on Red River of the North project

Construction is literally reaching new heights this summer on the Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Area Flood Risk Management Project.

1 Apr 2020

Corps inspects facilities across Minnesota and eastern North Dakota for potential community alternate care sites

ST. PAUL, Minn. –The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is performing site inspections across Minnesota and eastern North Dakota to support a nationwide FEMA mission assignment to convert existing large spaces into community alternate care sites to augment COVID-19 response efforts.

18 Mar 2020

Lock and dam tow rail systems get upgrades

The St. Paul District is investing more than $18 million in the tow rail system, vital pieces of equipment which assists tows locking through lock and dams when traveling upriver.

17 Mar 2020

The Corps Environment February 2020

This edition highlights partnership and collaboration, in support of Environmental Operating Principle #6. Content includes commentary from Ms. Stacey Brown, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Planning and Policy Division Chief, and highlights a variety of projects and initiatives across the enterprise.

17 Mar 2020

Memo from the Director of Contracting re: COVID-19

For USACE Contractors, As the Director of Contracting for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, I wanted to personally reach out to all of you and let you know that we are actively monitoring the situation in regards to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Attached is the guidance we received on planning for potential Novel Coronavirus Contract Impacts.

19 Aug 2019

Moving sand isn’t just for kids

Navigation on the Upper Mississippi River this year has been anything but normal. Historic flooding plagued the region for much of the spring and early summer. The floods brought historic high water and a significant increase in the amount of sediment. The high water has since receded leaving sediment as the sole souvenir of the 2019 flood.

27 Jun 2019

District recognized as safest workplace in the Corps of Engineers

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, was selected as the winner of the 2018 Chief of Engineers Safety Award of Excellence – District Category, once again raising the bar in safety excellence.

5 Oct 2018

A river rerouted: Step 1 in the Marsh Lake ecosystem restoration project

The St. Paul District, along with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Upper Minnesota River Watershed District, oversaw the rerouting of the Pomme de Terre River, near Ortonville, Minnesota, on Oct. 1.

16 Nov 2017

Finding a way to make it possible – deer hunt for the physically disabled

The 10th annual physically disabled and veterans deer hunt took place on the wildlife sanctuary within the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, St. Paul District, Orwell Dam and Recreation Area, near Fergus Falls, Minnesota, from Nov. 14 to 16, 2017.

6 Oct 2017

New well dig prompts archaeological survey at Sandy Lake

With respect and preservation in mind, archaeology experts with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, conducted an excavation at the site of a recently-defunct well at the Corps’ Sandy Lake Recreation Area Sept. 27.

24 Apr 2017

Springing into spring cleanup

Spring cleaning took on a slightly different meaning recently as the St. Paul District environmental section teamed up with a few of its partners to clean up a backwater slough in northeast Iowa.

21 Apr 2017

Corps of Engineers breaks ground on Fargo-Moorhead flood risk management project

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, and the Fargo-Moorhead Diversion Board of Authority hosted a 1997 Flood Commemoration and Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Area Flood Risk Management Project April 17.

16 Mar 2017

St. Paul employee part of team searching for Amelia Earhart

District employee Kenton Spading, rehired annuitant, regulatory, believes he and his team could be in the midst of unraveling the decades-old mystery of what happened to famous aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, who both went missing in 1937.

28 Feb 2017

Flood of ’97 overwhelms Wahpeton/Breckenridge

(originally published in the October-November 2007 Crosscurrents) Engineering division’s Matt Bray and Tim Grundhoffer fought two swiftly rising rivers, blizzard conditions and extreme temperatures only to be overcome by conditions beyond their control and to lose portions of a town not just once, but twice, in the same flood. Bray, a geotech engineer, and Grundhoffer, a structural engineer, were assigned as flood subarea engineers in Wahpeton, N.D., and Breckenridge, Minn., during the 1997 floods that wreaked havoc across the Red River Valley. Although they worked together closely, Bray worked primarily in Wahpeton and Grundhoffer in Breckenridge. Pete Corkin, from Rock Island District, assisted them.

28 Feb 2017

Memories linger of disaster at East Grand Forks/Grand Forks

(first published in Crosscurrents Oct.-Nov. 2007 edition) The district, the locals, the volunteers –they all put up a tremendous fight, but ultimately the Red River of the North rose too high, too fast. And although it’s been 10 years since the spring flooding in the Red River Valley destroyed much of Grand Forks, N.D., and East Grand Forks, Minn., the sights, the sounds, the emotions of this event linger for those who were there. "I can still picture those breaches like it was yesterday,” said Neil Schwanz, a geo-tech engineer. “I can picture myself standing [there], watching all this happen.”

16 Feb 2017

RED talks continue educating employees

With more than 12 RED talks in the books, the St. Paul District is adjusting its sites on the knowledge sharing program in the coming weeks.

27 Oct 2016

St. Paul District cultivates need for knowledge management

Curing work frustration was the focus of the inaugural RED talk at the St. Paul District office, in St. Paul, Minnesota, Oct. 19.

3 Nov 2015

Meeker Dam: Controversy plagued one of the first locks on the Mississippi River

Listed as one of the “controversies” in Raymond Merritt’s book “Creativity, Conflict & Controversy: A History of the St. Paul District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” the Meeker Dam project continues to provide intrigue.

3 Nov 2015

Gouverneur Kimble Warren

Maj. Gouverneur Kimble Warren was the first district engineer of the St. Paul District. After the Civil War, he came to St. Paul in 1866 and began work surveying the Mississippi, Chippewa, St. Croix and Wisconsin Rivers. He also began the preservation of St. Anthony Falls and designed the nation’s first reservoir system, the Mississippi River Headwaters Reservoir System.

3 Nov 2015

St. Paul District regulatory boundaries

In 1976, the St. Paul District regulatory staff consisted of four people (clerk included) that focused on evaluating projects under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. The scrutiny was largely of bridges, trestles, docks/piers and dams that had the potential to impede navigation.