The major land use in the Red River of the North Basin Study Unit is agriculture. The 1990 population in the largely rural Red River Basin Study Unit was about 511,000. Almost one-third of the population lives along the Red River in the cities of Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Moorhead, Minnesota. Urban runoff, treated municipal waste, and treated industrial waste from these and other cities can contain turf-applied pesticides , organic compounds, and nutrients that are discharged into the river. Knowledge of land-use type and location is important because pesticides and nutrients applied to the soil and crops can leach into ground water or enter streams through runoff.
Principal crops are wheat, barley, corn, and soybeans.
Secondary crops include oats, sugar beets, sunflowers, potatoes, and forage grasses. Most nonagricultural land is along the eastern edge of the Study Unit. Good quality water is important for residents in the Study Unit. Most of these withdrawals were from the Red River by Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Moorhead, Minnesota, the major urban areas in the basin. Public supplies also came from ground water.