Fact Sheet on Rock Rapids Conversion at the Mid Town Dam, Fargo, ND
See photos and a description of the dam conversion projects along the Red River based on a trip I took in Spring of 2003.
Side view of a detailed drawing of a rock rapids
Top view of a detailed drawing of a rock rapids
Fact sheet showing before and after photos of the low head dam to rock rapids at Wahpeton, ND. (700 k file, in color, that really shows how an ugly evil dam can be transformed into a gentle natural wonder)
Here's the fact sheet on the mid-town dam conversion in Fargo, ND. Note the reasonable cost. The river is about 190 ft. wide from crest to crest. A similar conversion at Wahpeton, ND cost about $100,000 for a dam that was about 100 ft. wide.
Midtown Dam, Red River of the North
Conversion of a dam to a rapids
Fargo, ND/Moorhead, MN
Fact sheet:
Date started: Feb. 1998
Date completed: Feb. 1999
Materials used: 4400 cubic yards of rock ranging from crushed rock to 5 ft. boulders
Equipment used: two large excavators, dragline, front end loader
Total cost: $228,234
Partners: MN DNR, Fargo, ND, Moorhead, MN, Buffalo and Red River Watershed Boards,
ND Dept. of Game and Fish, River Keepers
Dams cause environmental and societal damage. They can create dangerous hydraulic rollers that trap and drown people; they prevent fish and other aquatic animals from migrating upstream to high-gradient habitants; they prevent sediment from moving downstream; and they act as barriers to people travelling up and down the river.
Removing these dams eliminates all of these problems, but when that is not an option, converting the dam to a rapids is the next best thing. This fills the scour hole below the dam, eliminating the hydraulic roller and making the dam safer, and enables fish to migrate upstream.
Midtown dam, which was built in 1960, was not removed
because the city wanted to maintain a water intake pipe in the pool above the dam.
Therefore, work began in February 1998 to convert Midtown Dam to a rapids.
After delays caused by high water, the project was completed in February 1999.
Since that time, the site has become a popular kayak run. This project is part of a
larger effort to "Reconnect the Red" which will make all of the dams along the
Red River of the North-from Winnipeg, Canada to Fergus Falls, MN-passable to fish.
For more information contact:
Stream Habitat Program
Division of Ecological Services
Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources
