Whiskey Creek Enhancement

Background

Whiskey Creek, a tributary of the Red River of the North, is in Wilkin County, MN. The creek is one of many natural waterways within the Buffalo-Red River Watershed District (BRRWD).

Historically the creek experienced poor water quality due to agricultural practices and channel bank erosion, which led to sediment build up and caused flooding. In 2016, Wilkin County and the BRRWD secured a Clean Water Fund Accelerated Implementation Grant (AIG) to study the creek and investigate how to stabilize the stream.

The Project

The project partners tasked HEI with developing project alternatives to stabilize the stream. To do this, HEI evaluated the creek’s existing conditions with a hydraulic model to determine the watershed’s conditions during common flood events and identify problem areas along the stream.

Once the modeling was completed, HEI and the BRRWD held an informational meeting with landowners to gain their insights into what areas needed attention. The first informational meeting corroborated the findings of the hydraulic model.

With technical and landowner information in hand, HEI was able to begin developing alternatives for the Whiskey Creek stabilization. These alternatives were:

• channel restoration,
• expanded buffer areas,
• side inlets and sediment best management practices (BMPs),
• a beaver management plan, and
• streambank stabilizations.

These alternatives will enhance water quality and habitat as well as reduce flood damage.

To determine which alternatives should be implemented in the area, the BRRWD held another public informational meeting to gain landowner feedback and opinions. This and previous meetings helped HEI and the project partners gauge landowner interest and determine which alternatives will best solve their pain points.

HEI helped to develop the project with Minnesota Watershed Law. Construction of this four-phase project began in 2021. As part of Phase 4, we restored 4 additional miles of streambank and installed 38 side inlet structures in 2024 and 2025.

The total construction cost for this project was approximately $6 million. HEI worked with the BRRWD to apply for and obtain grant funding from the National Water Quality Initiative, Clean Water Fund, Section 319, Outdoor Heritage Fund, and US Fish and Wildlife Service.

This project received a Grand Award in the Water Resources category at the 2026 ACEC Minnesota Engineering Excellence Awards.