North Dakota
Upstream landowners ponder discrepancies between North Dakota, Minnesota F-M Diversion payouts
CHRISTINE, N.D. — Josh Granholt has spent much of his life on quiet farmland tucked into the bends of the Red River.
His family has farmed land near Christine for more than 100 years. Those fields give way to forested groves along the river, where he and his parents live today.
Despite their proximity to the river, the main houses on the Granholt family’s farmsteads have never flooded, even in years where cities to the north were inundated with water.
“The old timers put a house where it made sense and didn’t flood, not where it looked cool, because they didn’t want to deal with it,” Granholt said.
The construction of the
Fargo-Moorhead Area Diversion
upstream will change how Granholt’s land floods. He hopes to get compensated fairly for newly flooded land — and equally to landowners on the Minnesota side of the river.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
The diversion is a $3.2 billion flood control project designed to protect the Fargo-Moorhead metro from extreme floods. When operational, the project will hold water south of the metro behind a 22-mile earthen embankment. Three gated structures will control the release of floodwater into the Red River, the Wild Rice River and a 30-mile diversion channel that arcs west around the cities.
In order to hold water south of the embankment, the Metro Flood Diversion Authority, a governmental entity that oversees parts of the project, needs to secure property rights to store water on the land south of the dam. It has been doing so in the form of flowage easements. Property owners are paid for giving the Diversion Authority the right to flood their land.
The Granholt family properties are among those the Diversion Authority is in the process of securing property rights for through the eminent domain process, which allows a government to take land for public use.
Proposed flowage easements on Granholt family land pay for flooding in places that have never flooded before. But on the Minnesota side of the Red River, flowage easements cover far more land and stretch farther south along the river.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
Different states, different rules
In Minnesota, maps for the project show the Diversion Authority is acquiring flowage easements well into Wilkin County, about 30 miles south of Moorhead.
In North Dakota, a majority of flowage easements are in Cass County. Flowage easements in Richland County are along the Red River or waterways that flow into the Red River. The southernmost flowage easements in North Dakota are southeast of Christine, across the river from Wolverton, Minn. Wolverton is about 22 miles south of Moorhead.
Differences in flowage easements between North Dakota and Minnesota come down to the fact that the project involves two different states with different permitting requirements, Diversion Authority Executive Director Jason Benson said.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources permit requires property mitigation for up to a tenth of a foot of impact of the principal maximum flood, Benson said, which is “kind of the biblical flood, something that’s hard to comprehend.”
On the North Dakota side, the state requires mitigation for up to a half foot to the 100-year or 500-year flood levels, whichever is a higher impact, he said. A 100-year flood has a 1% chance of happening in any given year, while a 500-year flood has a 0.2% chance of happening in any given year.
“We’re applying Minnesota permit and regulations and rules for Minnesota residents and land mitigation on the Minnesota side. We’re applying North Dakota rules, regulations and law for land that we’re mitigating on the North Dakota side,” Benson said.
Permitting differences are the
basis of landowner countersuits in the eminent domain process.
Landowners represented by attorney Cash Aaland began filing counterclaims in eminent domain proceedings in February, alleging that North Dakota landowners are not being paid for all the water that could be displaced onto their property, or for the resulting damages, when the diversion’s southern dam holds back a maximum amount of water.
While the permit requirements are different in the two states, Granholt thinks Minnesota and North Dakota landowners should receive the same treatment.
“If Minnesota gets paid for everything, for an inch and above, not only do I think we should be compensated, but we should know where that is,” Granholt said.
Further, Granholt worries that if 6 inches of water did fill the flowage easement area, more shallow areas of water would stretch farther onto his property.
“Does that mean there’s going to be 5 inches someplace we’re not getting compensated for?” Granholt said. “Because whether it’s 1 inch or 1 foot in your basement, it’s still water in there, isn’t it?”
Chris Flynn / The Forum
Ken Knudsen lives a couple miles north of Granholt, northeast of Christine. His land is similar to Granholt’s — a grove of trees in one of the Red River’s loops, with a house built high enough to avoid flooding.
With the proposed flowage easements on his land, Knudsen expected to negotiate an amount for the water that could be stored on his land and a payout for the tear-down of a garage turned “man cave.” Finding out that Aaland thinks that water could go higher was not good news.
“I don’t want to move, and I don’t want to sell and I don’t want to fight floods that I’ve been told shouldn’t happen to our place,” Knudsen said.
The land Knudsen lives on was one of the original farmsteads in the area, he said, meaning that the brothers who moved there got to pick the best plot of land.
“I’d like to see that our farm doesn’t flood and we can just stay there, and it’s a beautiful place to live and pass it onto our kids and whatever,” Knudsen said. “If we’re going to end up having to fight floods every time they use the dam, then we’d have to think differently.”
The Diversion Authority does have a mechanism for landowners to bring forward claims if diversion operations flood more land than flowage easements cover. In such cases, landowners will be able to bring claims to a dispute resolution board created by the Diversion Authority. That board will determine if damage was caused by the project.
Granholt said he’s aware of that process.
“It’s usually easier to get it the first time than to come back and ask for more,” Granholt said.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
FARGO — Drivers can expect to see a slight uptick in gas prices as a result of the Iran conflict.
As of Monday, March 2, the average for North Dakota is $2.65 a gallon. While that is a $0.13 increase from a month ago, it is significantly lower than prices a year ago.
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GRAND FORKS – The Study ND, formerly Humanities North Dakota, has received $15,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts for a statewide theater and humanities initiative in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
This commemorative investment is meant to bring historical events and figures – such as the framers of the U.S. Constitution – to life through virtual and live performances that celebrate the nation’s history.
The grant, along with funding from private sources, has made it possible for The Study ND to host “America 250” activities after the organization sustained a considerable cut in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities last year, according to Brenna Gerhardt, The Study ND executive director.
“We absorbed a 50% budget cut, resulting in a loss of $467,645 in funding,” Gerhardt said. “As a result, we had to significantly scale back our American 250 initiatives focused on American history and civics education.”
Funds received from the National Endowment for the Arts will be used to present public readings, theatrical portrayals and guided discussions to encourage audience members to reflect on the nation’s founding in 1776 and on its democratic ideals, while engaging in contemporary conversations about civic life.
All of the programming in the series organized by The Study ND, titled “American Heroes,” will be livestreamed statewide.
In the grant application submitted to the National Endowment for the Arts, “we framed the project around a simple idea: democracy requires more than information, it requires citizens who can think historically, listen well, and argue in good faith,” Gerhardt said.
“This series uses living history performances to bring consequential figures into the room, then turns the room into a civic space through moderated dialogue and related public events. We define ‘heroism’ as civic courage under pressure, the willingness to contend with hard truths, and the capacity to enlarge a community’s moral imagination,” she said.
“The project does not ask audiences to agree on a single interpretation of a figure. It invites them to grapple with complexity together, and to connect the past to the responsibilities of the present.”
When Gerhardt and her colleagues received the application for grant proposals from the National Endowment for the Arts, “we were already planning a line-up of America 250 events and it fit perfectly with what we were already planning, so then we just wrote the grant,” she said.
Private funds, including matching funds from the Bismarck-based Tom and Frances Leach Foundation, have also been provided for this project.
Details about all the events will probably be posted on the website
www.TheStudyND.org
in March, Gerhardt said.
The America 250 events, which are planned to take place at Bismarck State College, are 5-6 p.m. July 8, “Reading of the Declaration of Independence, with John Adams,” and 6-7:30 p.m. July 9, “Alexander Hamilton Speaks,” both performed by William Chrystal.
The Living History programs are planned for 7-8:15 p.m. Sept. 17, “Thomas Paine,” performed by Doug Mishler, and Oct. 6, 7-8:15 p.m, “Frederick Douglass,” performed by Nathan Richardson. Both will be moderated by Susan Frontczak.
The performers Chrystal and Richardson live in Virginia, Frontczak in Colorado,and Mishler in Nevada.
Another program, “Hemingway and Gellhorn,” is set for Sept. 16-18 at Bismarck State College, Gerhardt said. “It is part of our broader Chautauqua/living history programming connected to America 250 … (and) will feature performances and discussion centered on Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, using their lives and writing as a way to explore major questions about American identity, war reporting, public memory, and the stories we tell about freedom, conflict and responsibility.
“What I am excited about with this event is that it gives us a way to approach America 250 beyond founding-era material. In other words, it helps us show the American story is not just about 1776, but also about the generations that followed and how Americans wrestled with democracy, power, truth and moral courage.”
This program “expands the initiative beyond commemoration into reflection, dialogue and interpretation, which is where the humanities are especially valuable,” she said. “It helps us reach audiences who may be drawn in through literature, journalism and performance, not only traditional history events.”
The Hemingway and Gellhorn program fits in with America 250 in that “it broadens the frame and adds depth to the larger effort.”
Gerhardt is hoping that these activities will give participants “a better understanding of all the debates and issues going on when our country was founded, and how those debates are continuing today,” she said, “and just to be more thoughtful and informed citizens.”
College students and members of the general public will also be invited to participate in a workshop aimed at teaching participants how to build a living history performance from primary sources and historical research.
Last year, The Study ND lost a substantial amount of funding – nearly $468,000, about half of its annual budget – from the National Endowment for the Humanities for its fiscal 2025 year.
The loss of that much funding was discouraging, Gerhardt said. “Very much so, because we had a lot of activities planned for America 250 and we had to cancel a lot of them, or – like in this case – seek other funding, which we were lucky to get.”
The Study ND currently has four full-time employees, she said. “We eliminated a part-time marketing position after the cuts.”
A nonprofit organization, The Study ND provides civics, arts and cultural education programming. The organization’s programs – which include online classes, book talks, lectures and more – reached about 24,000 people in 2024, Gerhardt told the North Dakota Monitor in April 2025.
During the summer, the organization hosts a civics education program for high school and middle school social studies teachers, she said.
On this day in 1943, two North Dakota army officers, Second Lieut. Arthur B. Kuntz and First Lieut. Bernard A. Anderson, were killed in separate medium bomber training crashes in Florida and Georgia.
Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:
Army Plane Crashes Kill Two N. D. Men
Two North Dakota officers in the army air forces were killed Sunday in bomber crashes during training flights, Associated Press dispatches revealed Monday.
Second Lieut. Arthur B. Kuntz of Harvey (Wells county) was killed with 10 others from the Avon Park, Fla., army bomber base when two medium bombers collided during a routine formation flight. Both planes crashed and there were no survivors.
First Lieut. Bernard A. Anderson of Warwick (Benson county) was one of six killed when a medium bomber from MacDill field, Tampa, Fla., crashed near Savannah, Ga. Lieutenant Anderson was co-pilot of the plane.
None of the other victims of either accident was from the Dakotas or Minnesota.
Lieutenant Kuntz, son of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Kuntz of Harvey, was graduated from the army air force navigation school at Hondo, Texas, as a second lieutenant last October, and received his wings as a navigator.
Kate Almquist is the social media manager for InForum. After working as an intern, she joined The Forum full time starting in January 2022. Readers can reach her at kalmquist@forumcomm.com.
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