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U-S Army Corps of Engineers will be in Valley City today visiting with local officials discussing options associated with permanent flood protection.

City commissioner Matt Pedersen is leading the effort to find the best option for the city when it comes to building permanent levees.

That eventually led to a lengthy discussion about a 4 option plan by the Corps of Engineers concerning how to armor the Tolna Coulee to avoid a catastrophic overflow of water from Devils Lake expansion.

Mayor Bob Werkhoven told People to Save the Sheyenne spokesman Dick Betting that he supports the states 2 outlet plan and the building of a control structure to take some pressure of Devils Lake.

Commissioner George Dutton agrees that these proposed plans are need to protect Valley City from a possible disaster.

In a plan released by the Corps, one option is to do nothing and wait until the lake elevation reaches 1458 feet and let it naturally over flow into the coulee.
Another is to rip rap the coulee and drive sheet pilings down on both sides for protection. And another would be to build a control structure to protect to an elevation of 1458 feet.

Betting asked city officials which option looks best to them. Betting says one of the options would cost an estimated $100 million dollars. He says the money may be better spent paying landowners in the upper basin to store water.