Farmers southeast of Portage la Prairie, Man., are relieved, frustrated and angry following the provincial government’s decision May 14 to intentionally flood cropland, says Chuck Fossay, who farms near Starbuck, Man.
The province cut into the Assiniboine River dike at Hoop and Holler Bend, 15 kilometres from Portage, releasing 400 cubic feet per second of river water onto farm fields and residential property south and east of the dike.
Premier Greg Selinger said the controlled release of water was necessary because the province was facing a one in 300 year flood of the Assiniboine River.
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If the dike wasn’t cut, he added, an uncontrolled breach of Assiniboine River dikes would have flooded hundreds of homes and spilled water onto a large chunk of land between Portage and Headingley, Man.
The province predicted May 15 that the cut would flood 180 sq. km of land, but the estimate may be revised.
Fossay said some are relieved that the province finally cut the dike because they spent nearly a week building up sandbag dikes to protect their property and were waiting for the water to flow.
However, he said others are bitter.
“Other people are still very upset that (their) land is being sacrificed to help other people. And there’s a few that feel that this was not really required, or could have been done somewhere else,” said Fossay, whose cropland won’t be affected by the intentional flood.
Roland Rasmussen, whose farm near Headingley is also outside of the intentional flood zone, has empathy
for producers who will be “swamped” by the controlled breach. However, he believes the dike cut at Hoop and Holler Bend was necessary.
“If they didn’t do anything, someone was going to get swamped out. When it’s controlled like this … maybe we can avoid a major catastrophe,” said Rasmussen, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Cartier, which straddles the Assiniboine River between Portage and Winnipeg.
No one really knows how long cropland will remain flooded because of the intentional spill, but Fossay said it’s unlikely those fields will be seeded this spring.
In his opinion, farmers in the intentional flooding zone should receive compensation equal to the profits of a neighbour who was able to plant a crop in 2011.
“(Producers) who will be able to seed their crops … they’re probably going to be netting out $100 to $200 per acre,” he said.
“I think full compensation means I get the same money as my neighbour who didn’t get flooded.”
Selinger has promised compensation that will be above and beyond existing disaster assistance programs in Manitoba, but specifics weren’t available as of press time.
