Ryan Richard built a new farmstead when the original plan for the Fargo-Moorhead Flood Diversion threatened his original farmstead. But the route of the revised diversion project now runs through his new farmstead, a setback he said will cost him millions of dollars.
Fall rains and snowfall as of midwinter have eased the drought and produced conditions expected to result in minor to moderate flooding in the Red River Valley.
Efforts to re-establish lake sturgeon in the Red River Basin began in 1997 and 1998, when the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources stocked juvenile sturgeon into the Red River and several tributaries, using fish from the Rainy River.
The dismissal of the lawsuit immediately opens the way for the Central North Dakota Water Project, but also will be helpful later in establishing the legal authority to use federal infrastructure to divert Missouri River water to the Red River.
Work continues on a project to bring water from the Missouri River to eastern North Dakota. This summer's drought doesn't have anything to do with the timing, but it shows the importance of it, one project leader says.
