FARGO-A picnic area now occupies the spot where Earl Pomeroy's childhood home once stood before it fell victim to flooding.

From there, he can view the "tranquil Sheyenne River and realize it's not tranquil all the time," the Valley City native and former North Dakota congressman said.

Pomeroy's experience is not a unique one in a state that faces seemingly annual threats from springtime flooding. The three former members of the North Dakota delegation, all Democrats who had long tenures in Congress, remember responding to the disasters as part of the job description.

Their time in office also saw two of the greatest floods to reach the Red River Valley, in 1997 and 2009. Pomeroy, along with former Sens. Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, expressed hope in interviews that the Fargo-Moorhead area would receive permanent flood protection as a diversion project gets underway.

That project still faces opposition from people living south of the metro area and from a Minnesota state government agency.

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"All of us who lived through that series of disasters know how absolutely devastating it was to people's lives," Conrad said, pointing to the financial and psychological effects of flooding. "They lost their homes, they lost, in many cases, memories that couldn't be replaced."

Dorgan, who spent 30 years in Congress before opting not to run for reelection in the Senate in 2010, remembered President Bill Clinton flying into Grand Forks to speak to flood victims at the nearby Air Force base. Dorgan remembers the president reassuring people that they weren't alone.

It was a dramatic moment, Dorgan said, but the response from the flood victims have also stuck with him. He remembered a Grand Forks woman being quoted in Newsweek magazine.

"She said, 'My kids are safe, and the rest of it is just stuff,'" he said. "And I thought, 'What a remarkable way to understand what the priorities are.'"

Dorgan described the Red River Valley as a "tabletop" that's prone to flooding, especially in recent history. Given those experiences, he said people in the Fargo-Moorhead area understand the need for comprehensive protection from flooding.

But Dorgan said there's been disagreement over the years about what form that protection should take.

"You can't build a project unless there's a consensus on what to build," he said. "There was a consensus in Grand Forks on the plan and it has been more difficult to have a consensus in Fargo around a plan."

Current members of North Dakota's delegation seem to recognize there won't be unanimous agreement around the diversion.

"We can't always make sure it's exactly the way everybody wants, right?" Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said during an April groundbreaking ceremony. "You can't get 100 percent agreement. But we can get a lot of agreement. And for those folks who are impacted, we can work hard to make sure they're treated fairly and well."

Opposition from people living upstream of the project, or south of the Fargo-Moorhead metro, has manifested into an ongoing federal lawsuit. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has also voiced objections to the project, with Gov. Mark Dayton arguing it doesn't do enough to mitigate impacts on the surrounding area.

Still, construction on a pivotal piece of the diversion is now underway. Project planners hope to have it operational in 2024.

Pomeroy hopes the two sides can resolve their differences, given the linked economies stretching across the Red River.

"We've got to approach it as a united community, because economically we are a united community," Pomeroy said. "Sooner or later, we're going to get flood protection. The question is whether we can move forward and put it in place before we take another tough flood."