Fargo-Moorhead flood diversion project “Plan B”, which the Minnesota D-N-R has now approved, could cost several hundred million dollars more than the original plan which the agency rejected. D-N-R Commissioner Tom Landwehr acknowledges, “You can do the project cheaper, but that’s not our charge. Our charge is to make sure that the project is consistent with state law, and previously it was not and now it is.”
Landwehr said earlier there will have to be a decision on cost-sharing between Minnesota and North Dakota. He said there was speculation at one point that Minnesota’s portion could be as much as 100 million dollars, but that figure “has come down dramatically.” “Minnesota receives a relatively small proportion of the benefits from this project and therefore it’s always been assumed that Minnesota would have a small proportion of the cost,” Landwehr says. That’s likely an issue for the state legislature.