Gov. Mark Dayton, who recently accused North Dakota officials of kicking sand in Minnesota's face, says it's time for the two sides to "forge a more constructive working relationship."
That relationship has been strained by a $2 billion flood control project that would protect Fargo from the flood-prone Red River of the North by sending floodwaters spilling across Minnesota farmland instead.
After several terse exchanges, the two sides sounded a more conciliatory note in recent days.
The officials in charge of the flood control project have pledged to halt most of their construction work until Minnesota completes a detailed environmental assessment of the project. In a letter Monday, Dayton said he hoped officials' "courteous sentiments" will be backed up by actions, like adding more Minnesotans to the nine-member board that is governing the project.
"As my Mother always told me, 'Actions speak louder than words,'" Dayton wrote in a letter to Fargo-Moorhead Diversion Authority Chairman Darrell Vanyo. "The Authority's future actions will determine, far more than its words, whether better relations are established with parties and people who are now estranged from it. I hope that cooperation can be achieved."
Both sides agree that that there's a pressing need for flood control measures along the Red River, which has flooded 19 times in the past 21 years, causing millions of dollars in damage to homes and businesses around bustling Fargo.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is proposing a massive project that would dig a diversion ditch around Fargo and place a dam across the Red to back millions of gallons of floodwater into the prairie and farmland south of Fargo and Moorhead.
Congress has authorized the project, but Minnesota is holding off on approval until the DNR completes a lengthy environmental impact study of the diversion, which could cause flooding around Minnesota farms and communities that currently sit above the Red's natural flood plain.
