Wilkin County begins clearing ditches to help rural drainage
Breckenridge, Minn. (WDAY TV) - Wilkin County is spending nearly 900 thousand dollars to clean ditches in hopes of helping the rural drainage. Landowners will pick up part of the tab and they say it's worth the price to lessen overland flooding and lost crops year after year. But communities to the north worry that faster moving water will mean worse flooding downstream.By: Todd Kurtz, WDAY
- Drainage 37 is along 210
Jeremy Tischer Farms in between Fergus Falls and Breckenridge, one of the 4 drains being cleaned out runs right in front of his home.
“Drainage 37 is along 210 here.”
Tischer says for the past 3 summers they've been hit with big rainfalls, dropping 3 to 4 inches on their fields at a time. And with the drainage not working right he's seen water sitting on the fields twice as long as it should be.
“Like this piece of ground out here was under water for 3 to 4 days and that's when you see the crop loss."
Tischer grew up on this farm, every year he sees disappearing roads and fields from overland flooding, because most of the culverts stay frozen. He says that's why a ditch cleaning project won't effect flooding.
"In the spring, you see flooding down here of the water where it's spread out for miles and miles I can't for see that changing"
The project costs around $20,000 per mile. A quarter of it will be paid for by landowners the rest is covered from a Clean Water Act, and will require farmers to have a buffer strip of grass in between their field and the ditch. That'll help cleaner water make it to the river by catching sediment, keeping it in the field."
"We don't like to see the erosion in our fields."
The project will start this June and most of it will finish by the end of summer. For area farmers like Tischer, he says its money well spent and can't come soon enough.
Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker says clearing out ditches in the southern end of the Valley only hurts people downstream. Walaker says farmers should wait it out, and let nature take its course.
He says clearing it now just means water will get up to areas like Fargo, quicker than normal. He believes there are other options like retention to help the problem for people down in southern counties.
“Improving their drainage down there to get the culverts cleaned out and so forth, so that water comes to us quickly, but it doesn't help.”
Walaker says another snow could come and plug up the culverts again, he says that would be helpful for downstream communities.
Tags: todd kurtz, fergus falls, breckenridge, minnesota, flood, agriculture, news
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