Brandt Impoundment Flood Control Storage

East of East Grand Forks, Minnesota, lies some of the most fertile farmland in the Red River Valley. Periodic flooding has plagued the area for over a century. A system of ditches constructed in the early 1900s were undersized to serve the area farmlands that expanded over the last century. The Red River Valley area was selected to be part of a demonstration project for the Minnesota Clean Water Initiative.

HDR worked with the Red Lake Watershed District to design improvements to reduce downstream agricultural and urban flood damage by retaining nearly 4,000 acre-feet of excess runoff from the upstream drainage area in a new impoundment facility. The Brandt impoundment features 3.5 miles of earthen clay embankment, a grass-lined emergency spillway, two lines of concrete box culverts and a gated concrete outlet structure. The gates release water from the impoundment into an outlet channel where it flows to the Red River of the North. HDR provided design, construction monitoring and inspection services.