Federal funding recently announced by Sen. Byron Dorgan will start the process of studying flood control measures on the James and Sheyenne river systems, according to officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"The $150,000 will do a reconnaissance study," said Paul Johnston, public information officer for the Corps of Engineers in Omaha. "This would look at the collected information; it would look at all the damages, all the way down to LaMoure (on the James River)."
A similar study has been funded for the Sheyenne River system.
Johnston said this study will determine if a more detailed study will be conducted.
"We will come up with a preliminary cost-benefit ratio," he said. "What this leads up to is a decision as to whether there is a federal interest in getting involved in a flood risk-reduction project."
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A federal interest exists if the potential reductions in flood damages exceed the estimated cost of the flood control efforts, Johnston said.
"What we're hoping for is a full-fledged study of the James River basin," said Jerry Bergquist, Stutsman County emergency manager. "The Jamestown City Council has passed a resolution requesting it, the Stutsman, LaMoure and Dickey county commissions have passed resolutions requesting it."
If the in-depth study envisioned by Bergquist becomes a result of the preliminary reconnaissance, it will have a price tag.
"The second step, the feasibility study, would have a lot more details and would have a 50 percent local cost share," Johnston said.
Bergquist said he doesn't believe that cost should be paid by Jamestown and Stutsman County alone.
"This part becomes more difficult because of the cost share," he said. "My feeling is we may have to form some basin-wide water commission and get support from the North Dakota Water Commission to pay for the study."
In the end, Bergquist said he hopes to have more information available if another flooding situation develops.
"The theory behind a river basin study is to determine what can be expected in the future and what can be done to mitigate future damage," he said. "We have a lot of questions to answer. No one had any thoughts we would have had the amount of water in the dams we had this year and no one would have thought we would have had the level of overland flooding we had this year."
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Local meetings to gather information for the reconnaissance study will be held in December with a final report planned for spring 2010.
Sun reporter Keith Norman can be reached at (701) 952-8452 or by e-mail at knorman@jamestownsun.com
