×

Rural Souris Basin residents still waiting on future flood solutions

Rural residents wait for flood solutions

Jill Schramm/MDN Chairman David Ashley of McHenry County, right, presides at a Souris River Joint Board meeting June 3, 2021, in Minot. Board members at left are Clif Issendorf of Bottineau County and Dan Steinberger of Renville County.

Lynn Kongslie of Towner is still cleaning up from the 2011 Souris River flood while holding out hope for an international agreement that can improve river management and spare his bottomlands from the devastation experienced 10 years ago.

“It’s so important that we get something done now. If we don’t, we never will for the people downstream,” said Kongslie, who serves on a U.S.-Canadian advisory committee for the river basin.

Building miles of levees isn’t the answer for protecting rural areas, noted David Ashley, chairman of the regional Souris River Joint Board.

“That’s not going to happen so you have to work on other things, and that’s where it comes back to trying to develop a better management system for the river basin,” he said. “I’ve seen so many people hurt so badly by the flood scenario in the rural areas, and until we can get a handle – or if we can get a handle – on that management, it’s going to be problematic, and I have a lot of concern about that.”

The joint board has worked with the International Souris River Board’s Joint Commission on a management study.

File Photo Following the 2011 flood, silt piles, like this one shown in April 2012 near Velva, needed to be removed to get agricultural land back into production.

“We were moving ahead with a very good, potential program to alleviate some problems there,” Ashley said. However, he added, “I’m very concerned how this is all going to shake out. Once again being an international thing, it’s very complicated.”

At this point, it has been difficult to reach consensus. Saskatchewan Water Authority wishes to exercise considerable control because of concern over dam safety, which is legitimate, Ashley said. At the same time, simply releasing water isn’t the answer for North Dakota or Manitoba, he said.

The rural river basin is particularly complex because of differences not just among the various portions of the basin but even between neighbors, preventing a single solution from working for all, Ashley said.

Kongslie said mitigation measures upstream in 2011 worsened flooding in his area along the Wintering River. Rural property often was sacrificed to protect more populated areas, and there wasn’t remuneration for those damages, he said.

The worst damage in 2011 resulted from high water that stayed into the fall, he said. Oak trees that were 150 to 200 years old died in mass numbers from standing in water.

“The cleanup is unreal,” said Konglie, who continues to haul away dead trees. “It’s just very overwhelming. It will be another 20 years, maybe longer. But how do we replace those trees – 100 years old?”

His hay production improved a little each consecutive year since the flood, but fencing replaced with the help of a federal program after 2011 washed out again in 2013 when Canadian dams pushed through high water in another wet year.

“The river bottom took several years to come back. There are still some spots that aren’t right and some on the hay meadows aren’t right,” Kongslie said. “For pasture and for hayland, it was devastating.”

A North Dakota State University study on the impact of the flood on soils is expected to release results later this year, he said.

Both Kongslie and Ashley know farmers and ranchers who gave up after 2011, but most rural property owners decided to either make their peace with the river or employ mitigation measures against a future flood.

The SRJB’s voluntary Structure Acquisition, Relocation and Ring Dike program has provided protection for 35 participants in Ward, Renville and McHenry counties.

Iris Swedlund, who lives at the edge of Velva, had flood water enter her home in 2011 and also wash away a two-stall garage and a mobile home used as a shop and storage for family memorabilia.

“Everything was gone but my dad’s minnow pail three miles down the road in a tree,” Swedlund said.

She rebuilt a road and her sewer system and was back in her home when the StARR program offered to assist her with more permanent flood protection. The recommendation was to relocate her unique, octagon house that had been built by her late husband to a hillside elsewhere on her property.

“I am a happy camper. I love where I am at,” she said, citing the easy access to a highway and peace of mind at a higher elevation. “And I have a beautiful, pleasant view of the valley of the Souris River.”

Regarding smaller communities in the basin, Ashley sees progress.

“In general we are able to move ahead. We’ve gotten some more funding in place. We just recently had a very successful legislative session,” he said.

Burlington has flood protection construction under way, and the Tierrecita Vallejo subdivision’s project is set to begin. Sawyer, Velva and Mouse River Park have plans designed for new bridges to improve water conveyance, which was a major issue in 2011.

“It was a very concerted effort on the part of the joint board to try and address these problems,” Ashley said. “We were successful in securing funding for some true rural things, and one of the things we’re going to be focusing on is removal of trapped water. Floods come through, fill up areas, and the way the basin is designed, it floods out of the river but it can’t get back in. So if we can get that off those flooded lands, that would be a very positive thing to do.”

Getting major infrastructure taken care of is another step. In addition to bridges, roads need to be built or protected to continue operating during a major flood event.

Ashley sees flood protection completion at only about 25% for the rural area so far. It is not as far along as he would have hoped after 10 years but it is warp speed when looking at the regulations and funding hurdles that had to be cleared, he said.

“So it’s proceeded well. Our engineers have been fantastic. Our consulting engineers have been fantastic,” he said.

“The fun portion of this is the fact that we are actually moving forward instead of spinning our wheels,” SRJB board member Clif Issendorf, Newburg, added. Problem areas remain, though, and Issendorf sees the Towner area as a major one.

“Flood irrigation in the Towner area is the lifeblood of a lot of local people in the ranching industry,” Issendorf said. “You have some major concerns with land that is receiving flood waters and not on a timely basis.”

Ashley said rural residents can be assured the SRJB recognizes their plight and wants to hear their voices in the flood protection discussion. Although more solutions are needed, the goal of the SRJB remains basinwide protection, he said.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today