Contact Your North Dakota Legislator
			Who We Are
			We are your friends and neighbors in rural Cass County Please do not flood our homes to protect yours   Dear Residents of Fargo, We are Citizens for Responsible Flood Control. We are your friends and neighbors who live in rural Cass County, mostly to the south of Fargo. We feel fortunate to live near Fargo, and we understand that Fargo's well-being is important to all of us. We are genuinely concerned about protecting both Fargo and the rural communities around Fargo from the kind of flood devastation that we all experiencd in April 1997. However, building a permanent barrier that walls off and excludes people living in the rural growth areas of Fargo to the south of the city is just not the best answer. It is important for Fargo's flood protection project to do no harm to others. It is absolutely essential that any dike project not cause damage to families living outside the permanent barrier that excludes people in rural Cass County south of Fargo. The primary method of flood control should be water retention sites throughout the Red River Valley that protect everyone and harm no one. Dikes that protect some and harm others should be a very distant secondary consideration. There is no question that the Traverse Dam south of Wahpeton, N.D., played a major role in saving Fargo from disaster. Additional storage in the Traverse Lake area would make the Fargo dike project unnecessary. Unfortunately, that is not the option that the Fargo city government is proposing. It is necessary to obtain accurate discharge data of the Wild Rice River. Data obtained by Citizens for Responsible Flood Control from the State of North Dakota, U.S. Geological Survey, Corps of Engineers, Cass County engineering department and other sources indicates that a much higher Wild Rice River discharge occurred in the flooding of 1997 than is acknowledged in the information provided to the Corps of Engineers by Moore Engineering. Accurate discharge data is critical to the design of any dike project. To obtain accurate discharge data of the Wild Rice River it is important to actually have an "unbiased" modeling of the river. Unbiased means that any company doing the study should not stand to profit from the outcome of the study. To accomplish this, we need to enlist the services of an "unbiased" engineering firm or the Corps of Engineers. Cost-sharing programs are available through the Corps of Engineers to county, state and city governments. Only after accurate Wild Rice River discharge data is obtained will we know what damage a Fargo dike project will cause to the homes of rural people living outside the exclusive area. What financial considerations are built into the Fargo dike project to compensate those citizens whose homes will be damaged from the effects of increased flooding caused by the building of a permanent barrier that excludes the people of rural Cass County? Flood damage to the homes of people living in the rural areas south of Fargo, must be considered along with the project costs, as well as repair and maintenance costs, to really know the true costs of such a project. The citizens of Fargo, who are expected to share in the costs of the dike project, need to know the true facts of the project and realize the damage that will impact citizens of Cass County before they vote on spending money to build a permanent flood barrier that excludes people living in the rural growth areas south of Fargo. We are Citizens for Responsible Flood Control, and we are fighting hard to protect our homes from being damaged by floods made worse by a Fargo dike project that excludes the people of rural Cass County. We want this project to be fully and openly considered, without any hidden information or private agendas. If it can be shown that building a dike project will actually protect Fargo without damaging the homes of people living in the rural growth areas of Fargo to the south of the city, then we Citizens for Responsible Flood Control will offer overwhelming support to go forward with this project. Thank you for your consideration, and please accept our best wishes, Citizens for Responsible Flood Control
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