Stearns County Ditch 28 (CD28)
Stearns County Ditch 28 (CD28) was established in 1906. The ditch is approximately 7.8 miles in length and contains roughly 3,089 benefitted acres. CD28 is both a legal county ditch and public waters. The DNR requires review of any drainage projects that may impact public waters and may also require a permit for work in the ditch or a letter of permission.
7/28/2025
The rain volume in 2025 has caused flooding throughout the watershed. The 5 plus inch rain event recently has made an already bad flooding problem much worse. Stearns County has been inspecting the ditch from Two Rivers Lake outlet to Co Rd 17 in Holdingford (legal ditch end) nearly daily to remove debris in the ditch. County Ditch 28 was engineered in 1906 and the water moving through the watershed today is exponentially greater.
The Redetermination of Benefits project continues, but it has been a slow process. The data collection and analysis has been completed by the Ditch Viewing team and the next step will be for property owners to get a report mailed to them that details their specific property and cost share of any dollars spent on ditch maintenance as well as a schedule of property owner informational meetings.
CD28 Drainage Activity History
An engineering study was conducted in 2015 to look for opportunities to clean the water going into Two Rivers Lake. The solution to filter water is to hold it in ponds, which also help manage flooding. The study identified project areas and the Stearns Conservation District has been activity looking for volunteer property owner partners, but to date, there have been no property owners who have expressed interest.
12/23/2024
The Stearns County Board of Commissioners acting as the drainage authority has approved special assessments for drainage system expenses totaling $500. The assessment is necessary to pay for costs incurred by the drainage system in 2024 for maintenance and to maintain a positive fund balance. The financial cost by parcel for all property owners in the drainage system is linked below.
CD28 2025 Special Assessment by Parcel
Redetermination
On July 19, 2022 the Stearns County Board of Commissioners acting as the County Ditch 28 (CD28) Drainage Authority appointed the Joe Jacobs viewing team to perform the redetermination of the drainage system. This appointment was in accordance with Minnesota State law. The project timeline will be about 18 months and there will be multiple opportunities for property owners to review the viewers findings and ask questions about how their individual property may be affected.
Please visit the CD28 Redetermination Project Page for more information.
https://gis.co.stearns.mn.us/Ditches/CD28/CD28_redetermination.html
Links
Click on the links to review the various ditch reports and maps.
CD28 Engineer's Report for Reestablishment - Adopted 9/24/2019
Flight from October 16, 2018. This is resulting video of the flight. (No audio)