Minot Water Treatment Plant Flood Protection

Minot Water 6 - Houston Engineering INC.
Minot Water Treatment Plant Flood Protection

The catastrophic Mouse (Souris) River flood event of 2011 caused historic damage to property and infrastructure in the City of Minot. This event prompted the need for providing permanent flood protection for the Mint Water Treatment Plant to prevent contamination to the City’s water supply.

Background

The catastrophic Mouse (Souris) River flood event of 2011 caused historic damage to property and infrastructure in the City of Minot. An inundated well field plus flood water intrusion into the WTP clearwell forced the North Dakota Department of Health to issue a boil order for the City’s water supply as a health precaution during the flood.

While the necessity of the boil order was debated at the time, it served an underlying purpose beyond waterborne pathogen protection—reducing water use from the system. It is apparent that many people to this day don’t know how close the City was to evacuation during the 2011 flood.

The aftermath of the flood revealed damage to the vast majority of the City of Minot’s water supply wells that penetrate the Sundre and Minot aquifers, and the Minot Water Treatment Plant (WTP) needed permanent flood protection to prevent contamination.

The Project

The Minot Water Treatment Plant Hazard Mitigation Grant Program project’s intent was to protect this critical infrastructure from future flood events. The combination of levees and floodwalls, plus incorporating ultraviolet light as an additional treatment process, ensured that should the well fields become inundated again the Minot WTP can treat Mouse River water to a level that will meet Safe Drinking Water Standards and avoid system contamination.

The project consisted of more than 6,000 cubic yards of cast-in-place concrete in various components of the flood mitigation effort around the WTP. The plant is in one of the lowest areas of the community on the banks of the Mouse River which flows through the middle of the community.

Further, improvements incorporated under this project to the Minot stormwater collection system enabled reducing overland flow into the protected area resulting in a more cost-effective solution for the City. Supporting this critical project for the City of Minot and the NAWS region while providing sustainable fiscally effective solutions was the goal of HEI and our partners Stantec and PCI; we are proud to have served the City of Minot and the region in accomplishing that goal.

  • Creates permanent flood protection for northern North Dakota’s primary water supply with approximately 1,750 feet of concrete floodwalls and 500 feet of earthen tie-back levees.
  • Significantly reduces the need for temporary flood protection measures.
  • The first permanent flood protection project implemented within Minot following the 2011 flood. The design methods have become the model for all future phases of the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection Project.
Project Details

Client: City of Minot

Location: Minot, North Dakota

Project Highlights
  • Creates permanent flood protection for northern North Dakota’s primary water supply with approximately 1,750 feet of concrete floodwalls and 500 feet of earthen tie-back levees.
  • Significantly reduces the need for temporary flood protection measures.
  • The first permanent flood protection project implemented within Minot following the 2011 flood. The design methods have become the model for all future phases of the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection Project.
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