The United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) proposes to provide federal financial assistance under the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Grant Program to the City of Lincoln (sub-applicant) in Burleigh County, North Dakota, for a flood mitigation project to retire the flood-prone wastewater treatment lagoons and construct a mechanical wastewater treatment facility (proposed action). Pursuant to Executive Order 11988
(Floodplain Management), Executive Order 11990 (Protection of Wetlands), and FEMA’s implementing regulations at Title 44 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 9, FEMA hereby provides interested parties with a notice of its final decision and an explanation of the alternatives that were considered.
The purpose of the proposed action is to construct a continuous-discharge mechanical wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) at the site of the existing Lincoln wastewater treatment lagoons. The proposed project site is northwest of the City of Lincoln at the end of Lagoon Road/North Benteen Drive (GPS coordinates: 46.775541, -100.704930). The proposed WWTF would use an advanced, multistage biological nutrient-removal process within a compact, shared-wall, cast-inplace
concrete facility. Construction would include an influent lift station with redundant pumping capacity; a pretreatment building; a sludge pumping and digester blower building; an Aero-Mod reactor building; a dewatering building; a cake-storage facility; a process-control building; and associated utilities. The project would install an outfall pipe with a flared end section and riprap to convey treated effluent to Apple Creek. The existing facultative lagoon system would be decommissioned. Lagoon cells 1, 3, and/or 4 could be repurposed as wetweather equalization basins to provide emergency storage during extreme precipitation events and reduce peak-flow impacts on the treatment system.
The project area is within the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) Number 38015C0815E, effective June 6, 2024. The FIRM indicates that the proposed WWTF buildings would be in an Area of Minimal Flood Hazard, Zone X (Unshaded). The proposed effluent pipeline from the treatment facility will be in the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) regulatory floodway, which is part of Zone AE (1% annual chance, 100-year floodplain). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory map and a wetland delineation study completed by the City of Lincoln in 2026 indicate the project would partially occur within wetlands. Maps depicting the project area and its location relative to the floodplain and wetlands are available for public inspection. Parties interested in receiving a copy of either map should contact the FEMA Region 8 Environmental Officer using contact information provided in this notice.
FEMA determined that there is no practicable alternative to locating the proposed action in the floodplain/wetland. Alternative locations for the WWTF were not found to be practicable because suitable City-owned property is unavailable and relocating the facility would require substantial modifications to the existing gravity-fed collection system at a prohibitive cost. Multiple alternative actions were not found to be practicable, including Alternative 1 - No Action;
Alternative 2 - Stabilization Pond Expansion; Alternative 3 - Regionalization with Bismarck; Alternative 4 - Hybrid Aerated Pond System; and Alternative 5 - Variations of a Mechanical Wastewater Treatment Facility. Alternative 1 would result in no action being taken to mitigate flood hazards, which is not recommended because the risk of flood hazards, including damage to property and people, would remain. Alternative 2 was determined to be not feasible because of space restrictions, odor, and proximity to neighborhoods. Alternative 3 was found to be cost prohibitive. Alternative 4 was deemed not practicable because of space and weather restrictions. Alternative 5 looked at two other types of mechanical treatment plants: conventional activated sludge / suspended growth and oxidation ditch designs. These were found to be not feasible because of weather and temperature restrictions.
The proposed action, a mechanical plant with shared wall construction, would have a beneficial floodplain effect by reducing the risks associated with old wastewater lagoon system: overtopping, structural failure, untreated discharges, system failure, and environmental contamination during flooding and wet-weather events. By reducing these risks, the proposed action will minimize the impact of floods on human health, safety, and welfare. Flooding impacts on the new facility would be avoided or minimized by elevating or flood proofing all construction to the 0.2-percent-annual-chance flood elevation. A Floodplain Development Permit from the local floodplain administrator and no-rise certification approved by North Dakota Department of Water Resources is required for the project. The City of Lincoln has declared that the proposed action would conform to local floodplain standards, and the City would be responsible for the management, construction, and maintenance of the proposed action.
The proposed action is anticipated to permanently affect up to 4.02 acres of wetlands, excluding the lagoon cells, and temporarily affect up to 1.1 acres. The wetlands that would be permanently affected are currently sustained by outflow from the existing lagoon treatment system. Because effluent from the proposed WWTF would instead be conveyed by pipeline, these wetlands would likely experience permanent impacts. Additionally, the new facility’s buildings would be
elevated above the 0.2% annual chance (500-year) flood elevation, which could require grading and adding fill in this same area. For temporary impacts to wetlands, there are 1.1 acres of roadside ditches and drainage ditches that could be affected during the installation of utilities, the outflow piping, and the outflow structure.
Wetland impacts would be avoided and minimized to the maximum extent practicable through standard construction best management practices (BMPs), a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP), equipment staging outside wetlands, erosion and sediment controls, and postconstruction site seeding and other permanent stabilization measures. Construction near Apple Creek and other wetlands will be limited to the minimum area necessary to complete the work. Any compensatory mitigation and/or avoidance and minimization measures required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality, or other permitting authority would be implemented as a condition of the applicable permit or approval. The City would obtain all applicable federal, state, and local permits and approvals before construction.
A public comment period for the proposed project described in this notice will remain open for 15 days from date of publication. If no substantive comments are received, the proposed project may proceed no sooner than 15 days after the comment period closes. Interested persons may obtain more detailed information about the proposed project or provide comments by emailing FEMA Region 8 Environmental and Historic Preservation (EHP) at fema-r8ehp@fema.dhs.gov or by mail
at the Denver Federal Center, P.O. Box 25267, Denver, Colorado, 80225, Attn: FEMA EHP, Subject: Lincoln ND WWTF.
Click here for a PDF of the final notice including maps of the project area.