WASHINGTON, D.C. (NewsDakota.com) – North Dakota Senator’s John Hoeven and Heidi Heitkamp said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has officially announced that Valley City can keep its floodwall.

In March, Heitkamp and Hoeven passed legislation enabling Valley City to keep an existing floodwall near Valley City State University that was inadvertently built on land acquired using FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.

Under FEMA policy, no permanent structure can be built on land that has been bought out by FEMA.

North Dakota Congressman Kevin Cramer was also instrumental in getting the legislation approved in the US House.

In 2017, Hoeven, Heitkamp and Cramer secured a similar provision enabling Drayton, ND to keep its levee also built on FEMA property.

Here is the official news release by Senator Hoeven’s office;

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven today announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has officially announced that Valley City can keep its floodwall. Last month, Hoeven passed legislation enabling Valley City to keep an existing floodwall near Valley City State University that was inadvertently built on land acquired using FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP).

“As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I worked to pass legislation to enable Valley City to keep its floodwall, which will help ensure long term flood protection for the community and provide residents with security and peace of mind,” said Hoeven. “Today’s FEMA announcement makes it official, which is very good news for the community.”

Under FEMA policy, no permanent structure can be built on land that has been bought out by FEMA. Specifically, Hoeven’s provision authorizes FEMA to allow Valley City to retain flood protection systems inadvertently built on HMGP land.

Last year, Hoeven secured a similar provision enabling Drayton to keep its levee.

Here is the official news release by Senator Heitkamp’s office;

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp today announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officially stated that Valley City can maintain its floodwall. The decision from FEMA is a result of a fix Heitkamp wrote and successfully included in the funding bill Congress passed last month that allowed Valley City to keep in place the existing floodwall.

Without Heitkamp’s legislative fix, the federal government would have forced the city to remove the floodwall – which would have reduced flood protection and cost the city a great deal. Heitkamp’s provision followed a meeting she held on March 10 with the Valley City mayor, commissioners, and other local officials involved in flood protection efforts during which she updated them about her efforts to try to include her provision in the funding bill.

“Residents in Valley City need strong flood protection in place to keep families and the community safe. And as of today, it’s official – FEMA confirmed that Valley City will be able to maintain its floodwall,” said Heitkamp. “I’m proud to have passed a fix through Congress that made this possible. Without it, FEMA would have forced Valley City to remove this critical floodwall and exposed residents to potentially devastating floods in the future. Now, Valley City will be able to stay strong and families living there will remain safe from floods. That’s something we should all celebrate and it’s a good day for common sense.”

After Valley City built a floodwall to provide permanent flood protection to keep residents safe, it became known that the land where part of the wall is located is deed restricted because the land was purchased through the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. As a result, FEMA had told the city to remove the floodwall at a cost of at least $150,000 — despite the fact that the entire purpose of the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program is to reduce impacts from natural disasters, including flooding — and then develop an alternative flood protection plan, which would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more.

To prevent that from happening, Heitkamp successfully worked to include language in the federal funding bill Congress passed in March that allowed the floodwall to remain on this property. Heitkamp had been working with senators on the Senate Appropriations Committee and Senate Homeland Security Committee to press the issue, as well as with the North Dakota State Water Commission and the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services to gather their input.

The flood fights in Valley City during the 2009 and 2011 floods – the first and second worst floods in the city’s history – cost $19 million, of which $16 million was state and federal funds and $3 million was local funds. Following those floods, the city has been working to put in place permanent flood protection to keep the city and residents protected and reduce costs.

This first phase of the project where a combination of a floodwall and levee were constructed to protect the university area, which includes 79 homes and seven businesses with a combined value of $49 million, is where the FEMA deed restricted lot in question is located. This part of the city’s comprehensive flood protection effort was completed in 2016 and the city took great care to avoid three other FEMA deed restricted lots in developing and constructing the project, however, the lot in question was identified as city-owned. Last year, it was discovered the lot had been purchased with FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds.