our Projects

  • 01/

    Bear park Project

    The Bear Park Project was completed in 1984. The designed to hold 4000 acre feet of water during high runoff events, reducing flood damages on the Sand Hill and Red River.
  • 02/

    V. Olson Dam

    The Verdell Olson Dam began with the construction of a detention dam in the outlet channel from a 50 acre basin. The dam eliminated damages caused by extremely high flows each spring.
  • 04/

    Winger Dam

    The proposed Winger Dam was designed to hold 12,000 acre feet creating a lake with 6,000 acrea feet of possible flood storage. After years of effort and expense, the project died due to the inability to obtain proper permiting from the US Army Corp and MN DNR.
  • 08/

    Ogaard Impoundment

    The project was meant to complement the Winger Dam and provide mitigation for the dam. This project died when the Winger Dam was denied permitting.
  • 09/

    River Clean up

    To complement the district's missions statement, the district supported all efforts to clean our local river. Tires, mattresses, garbage, carcuses, and appliances were just a few things found and removed from our river.
  • 09/A

    River Stabilization

    The Sand Hill River Watershed district installed riprap at four erosion protection areas along the Sand Hill River. Three of these areas are located in the vicinity of the city of Fertile in sections 20 and 29 of Garfield Township. The fourth site is located in the NW 1/4 of sect(ion 28, Liberty Township.
  • 10/

    West Mill

    The City of Fertile petitioned the Sand Hill River Watershed District with a proposed recreational lake west of Fertile at the site of a feed mill that failed in 1950. The project died due to a lack of funding and MN DNR permitting restraints.
  • 15/

    Ring Dikes

    Farmstead Ring Dikes
    City Ring Dikes
    The Sand Hill River Watershed District has assisted in the construction of many ring dike projects, mostly on the west end of the district. The latest project is a ring dike around the City of Climax. The district is waiting funding for a ring dike around the City of Nielsville
  • 16/

    Kurass Lake

    The Watershed District assisted Garfield Township in 1998 with control structure to lower the lake level of Kurass Lake and establish an ordinary high water level.
  • 18/

    Vesledahl Wetland Banking

    Multiple agencies planned to develop and restore areas of wetlands that will serve as a "bank" for wetland "credits" to be used to offset damages done to other wetlands for road construction projects.
  • 19/

    Union Lake Erosion Control

    The district discovers a a workable solution for solving the erosion that was occurring at the site in section 31 of Knute Township, Polk County, Minnesota.
  • 21/

    Fish Passage

    Since the early 2000's the Sand Hill River Watershed District has collaborated with partnering agencies to restore the Sand Hill River and make it a viable fishery once again.
  • 22/

    Section 23/Russia Boundary

    Collaboration between the Red Lake Watershed District and the Sand Hill River Waterhsed District solves flooding for local landwoners.
  • 23/

    Section 23/Russia Boundary

    Collaboration between the Red Lake Watershed District and the Sand Hill River Waterhsed District solves flooding for local landwoners.
  • 28/

    King Township- Hopke Diversion

    The district cost shares with King Township to maintain the district's policy to manage water through a grass waterway vs. crossing farm fields.
  • 29/

    Rock riffles

    The Sand Hill River Watershed District collaborated with many partners to minimize future head cutting along the Sand Hill channel and reduce to occurrence of bank sluffing.
  • 30/

    Jerde/Taylor Erosion control

    The District helps landowners implement erosion control measures in Section 13 of Liberty Township.

 

Jerde/Taylor Erosion control

Project # 30

The site and associated drainage area is located in the eastern half of Section 13 of
Liberty Township (TI47N R45W) and western half of Section 18 of Garfield Township
(TI47N R44W) in Polk County, Minnesota. The area is a mix of wooded area, CRP, and
agricultural land with an associated drainage area (ADA) of 170 acres.

Extensive erosion has been occurring on the steeper slopes of the agricultural field
(currently in CRP) during the large rain events since 1997. This has led to gullies
forming on the steeper slopes and sedimentation on the flatter slopes and into the
receiving township ditch.

An ADA of 170 acres was determined using information supplied by the owner, FSA
slides, FSA photos, and USGS topo maps. Using NRC8's Hydrology Guide for
Minnesota, a peak flow for a lOyr,:,24hr storm event was estimated at 13.8 cubic feet per
second (cfs) with a runoff of 0.65 inches (runoff curve number = 64, 1.5 percent
watershed slope, and watershed length of3600 feet). The volume of runoff water from
the lOyr-24hr-storm was estimated at 9.2 acre-feet. A 25yr-24hr-storm peak flow was
estimated at 25.7 cfs with a runoff of 1.03 inches.

A grade stabilization structure in combination with a grassed waterway was designed
to reduce field erosion, reduce sedimentation in the field and the township ditch, and
improve water quality. Rainfall will be flood routed using the temporary upstream
storage area of 2.0 acre-feet created by the structure, the required storage for a 10 yr-24 hr storm
event for the design discharge rate.


The grade stabilization structure will use a 24-inch CMP that discharges at a design rate
ll-cfs. Based on an average discharge rate' of 4 cfs, a l0yr-24hr-storm event would drain
the storage area in approximately 6 hours. The designed structure has a ten-foot
top with 3H: 1 V slopes to be covered with suitable vegetation. A 20-foot wide emergency
spillway has been designed to direct flows greater than the design storm around the
structure and into the grassed waterway.


The grassed waterway is designed with an 8-foot bottom With 4H: IV sideslopes and a
minimum flow depth of 2 feet. The 8-foot bottom was selected to allow for use of
common excavating equipment (scrapers or dozers) to construct the channel. The 2-foot
depth has the capacity to handle a total flow of 82 cfs, large enough to handle a 100yr-
24hr-storm event (52-cfs). Based on NRCS's grassed waterway program, the design flow
of 11 cfs produces a channel velocity of 1.2 feet per second. Because this is below the
recommended minimum velocity of 1.5 feet per second, maintenance requirements have
been addressed in the Operation and Maintenance Plan.


In addition to the flow from the ADA, the Sand Hill Watershed District has installed a
24-inch CMP through the east-west township road on the north side of the section. It is
designed to allow overflow from the ditch on the north side of the township road
southward through the site. The CMP invert was installed approximately 3 feet below the
road surface (estimated flow of 11 cfs). It is assumed the flow through the designed
structure will handle the volume of water from the overflow CMP. For this design, it also
has been assumed that the total volume of runoff from a 10yr-24hr-storm event will pass
through the structure before an overflow through the township road will occur.