By Mondell Keck | The Brookings Register
BROOKINGS — The Big Sioux River can be pernicious at times, especially during the spring snowmelt and heavy rain events, but an ongoing effort to alleviate some of those woes raised more questions and concerns than answers at a meeting this week in Brookings.
The proposed project revolves around re-establishing a dike on the river in Medary Township. It’s a years-long issue, one that’s gotten worse as more and more water courses from the main river channel into the diversionary channel that might have been created as far back as the 1960s — a channel the dike once controlled water flow into.
Brookings County commissioners, meeting in their capacity as the Brookings County Drainage Board, decided at their Feb.3 meeting to hold an open house sometime in May, with more details — such as time and location — being nailed down in the months ahead, to help spread word of the dike plans.
“This isn’t something we’re going to get fixed overnight,” Commissioner Kelly VanderWal said. “We’re going to do the best job we can. Are we going to get everything right? Probably not, but I’m going to listen and we’re going to do our best to do what we can with this situation.”
The decision came after commissioners heard testimony from residents and landowners — several letters were sent as well — concerned that any restoration of the dike would lead to unintended consequences for their homes and properties in the form of a higher flooding risk as more water would once again flow down the Big Sioux River proper rather than into the diversion channel. A previous open house was in August 2024.
If that wasn’t enough of a headache, then there’s the fact that if something isn’t done, Brookings County taxpayers could be on the hook for millions of dollars in repair or replacement costs. That’s because the water — which at times has carried up to 70% of the Big Sioux River’s flow, depending on the time of year, according to information presented at the Feb. 3 meeting — is scouring away at structures not designed to handle such intensity.
This is especially true of the bridge roughly one-half mile west of the recently rebuilt main Big Sioux River bridge on county Road 12, also known as 216th Street and the Sinai Road. A couple of other structures on other roads are also at risk.
“What’s happened so far is somebody brought it to us, ‘We have an issue with this bridge; we need to figure out what to do,” Commissioner Dave Miller explained. “So, we do studies to research that, and … I’m sorry for the frustration in communication, but until we had a big picture of what we need to deal with — what are the concerns — now is when we bring you in. I’m sorry you feel frustrated you weren’t part of that research part of it, and that’s valid.”
The site of the proposed project is just east of 468th Avenue between 215th and 216th streets, on the west side of the river. The diversionary channel was left uncontrolled by a succession of landowners and gradually grew to a larger size, according to information from County Development Director Bob Hill.
Concerns that commissioners heard about on Feb. 3 included:
• The aforementioned less-than-stellar communications outreach efforts to affected residents and landowners. A Banner Associates representative said dozens of letters were mailed to area landowners, primarily those with easements on their property tied to the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service.
• Tiling by farmers that increases water flow into the Big Sioux River.
• Population growth in Brookings that leads to more hard surfaces, such as roads, parking lots and driveways, spurring faster water runoff.
• A landowner said his family is already dealing with a driveway that, most summers, is under at least 4 inches of water. The situation, he said, is worsened because his wife must drive through that water in the dark on the way to her early morning job.
After listening to residents’ worries, commissioners agreed that already-underway environmental and cultural reviews on and near the dike site should be continued by Banner, the firm charged with carrying out such things. The goal is to get as much information as possible, so that attendees at the upcoming May open house will be well informed of what the scenarios are.
“The most information we can get and get it out to the public and have the most public input — more information is always better and open lines of communication,” Commissioner Shawn Hostler said. “That is the biggest thing that I see, so that we can make sure we can do the best we can with the information provided,” he observed.
In that vein, VanderWal also encouraged people in the audience — and listening to the meeting — to give their mailing addresses to Hill’s county development department. The department can be contacted at 605-692-5212.
In closing, Commissioner Doug Post raised a question of the dike’s effectiveness if it were to be re-established.
“That entire area is old river bottoms, old channels, old oxbows,” he said, noting that he’s done farming and haying in the area. “That river’s been pretty much everywhere in a 3-mile span all through that bottom.
“… I think we’re trying to play God here a little bit: The river’s going to go here, and the deer are going to cross where we put the sign on the highway. We build a bridge, but, and we hope it ends up going there by building the road higher,” Post continued. “… Pretty much all we’ve accomplished is (that) we’ve created more problems. That river’s going to go where it is — when everybody’s upset about the river, it’s 2 miles wide and nothing we did changed anything.”
— Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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