Watershed District holds two meetings

The Red Lake Watershed district has two current project work teams; Four-Legged Lake Flood Damage and Reduction Project and Pine Lake Area Improvement Project. 

The district held an open house last week at the Gonvick Community Center for landowners in the two potential areas to give their comments on the projects. 

Myron Jesme, District Administrator, noted a region-wide goal was established to reduce peak flows along the Red River of the North (Red River) by 20 percent during a flooding event similar to the 1997 flood. In order to reach this goal, each tributary of the Red River has been provided with both peak flow and volume reduction goals as set forth in the Red River Basin Commission’s (RRBC) Long Term Flood Solutions (LTFS) Basin Wide Flood Flow Reduction Strategy Report. Several large-scale modeling efforts have been conducted throughout the Red River Basin to assist in determining the amount of effort required to meet the flow and volume reduction goals in each tributary basin of the Red River. 

Pine Lake and Four Legged Lake subwatershed have been identified as areas where retention can be added to reduce peak flows at Crookston. There are also potential opportunities to modify the Pine Lake and Four Legged Lake control structures to provide benefits to the lakes and adjacent land areas such as reducing flood risk to local landowners, enhancing environmental conditions within the lakes, and adding recreational benefits.

From the Red Lake Watershed web site... Runoff from 45 square miles of drainage area causes rapid increases to the Pine Lake’s water surface elevation after storm events. During 13 of the last 33 years there have been flooding concerns in the subwatershed. While there are lower lake levels in the late summer, fall, and winter, these seasons typically result in water quality issues. 

The project has provided many years of flood control benefits to the area; however, over the years of operations it has become evident that the current project does not provide adequate flood control and recreational benefits. A Project Team was created to explore alternatives available to modify the current project and reduce flood risk to local landowners, enhance environmental conditions within the subwatershed, and add recreational benefits to Pine Lake. The Project Work Team agreed that the primary alternatives that might be explored include modification of the existing outlet structure and adding water-detention facilities upstream of Pine Lake. A feasibility study was completed to examine the potential benefits of the two stated alternatives. 

The projects goals will benefit the local community by modifying the outlet to assist with preferred summer and winter lake levels, manage agreeable lake levels, and improve water quality. Additionally, the project will provide upstream storage to reduce persistent flooding conditions, manage lake levels, and improve water quality in the lake and downstream river reaches.