Chief of Army Corps of Engineers Stresses Importance of F-M Diversion in Fargo Roundtable
The Project has raised $100 million of federal funding
FARGO, N.D. — The F-M Diversion project is unifying surrounding areas to find more permanent solutions to future flooding.
“This is a local, state, federal partnership,” Sen. John Hoeven said. “It is Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo, Cass County, Clay county – the region working together. This is about comprehensive flood protection for the regions.”
The plan involves the creation of several structures around the area that would provide more permanent measures, such as division inlets.
“That is what this flood control does,” Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite said. “It clearly has got to be able to take care of safety and the property and damage, but at the end of the day, our citizens deserve to live in a place where they don’t have to fear for their lives every single time. If that is where they put their investment in, they’d like to see that they are protected.”
Making this happen takes plenty of support from the federal government. The project has already raised one hundred million dollars in federal funding, but the goal to is double that.
“We continued to champion this, not just from an engineering perspective,” Semonite said. “But we have worked very closely with congress – Sen. Hoeven has been a champion here – to be able to make sure we can articulate to congress the value of this, so when congress has to make hard decisions on where money should go, this is one of those that clearly should be on top of the list.”
Along with support from Senator Hoeven and Lt. Gen. Semonite, the backing of the local communities have also played a part in the federal government’s support.
“One of the reasons that the federal government feels that this is a worthy project is not only because it is needed, but because the local tax payers have chosen to tax themselves half of the cost of this project to get it done,” Chair of Diversion Authority Mary Scherling said.
