Sights Upstream

To the Editor:

The recent media blitz from Fargo officials for pro diversion comments have fallen on flood swollen boots down stream. Mayor Walaker made mention that he made a special drive around Fargo last weekend and noted everyone was going about their business like they didn’t even know a flood was going on. No kidding. I noticed on the evening local news it was reported that Argusville had the highest water level in history and they narrowly saved the town. In another piece the Cass County engineer had a story that the additional wall of water being forced around Fargo would actually help down stream folks, including Argusville. The latest plan to hold water upstream was supposed to be the fix all. But the plan is still to send the same 35,000 cubic feet per second around Fargo at the same time as they are sending 29,000 through town, just like before.This would come at a time when we are barelystaying above water, just like in this flood event. How does this help down stream? I think the diversion planners have just figured out how to screw both down stream and up stream. As upstream and down stream communities stand to lose their schools, churches, small businesses, farms, farmsteads and heritage, what is Fargo sacrificing? They won’t even pay for their own flood protection. They expect shoppers (us), the federal and state government to pay for it all. There is a better way. Charlie Anderson’s 20% mainstream flow reduction plan helps us all. If you read in a recent letter in the Forum about how a perfect storm could finally inundate Fargo, it only proves Charlie’s point of holding water back and releasing water in a fashion that holds the flooding to a minimum. That helps the whole basin. But it seems like Fargo planners don’t want to help anyone but Fargo, while all of us pay for it, in cash and heritage.

-Terry Guttormson
Hendrum, Minn.