Farmers head to legislature | The watershed authority says it is halfway through last year’s illegal drainage complaints
The Saskatchewan government is reminding farmers to follow the rules regarding water drainage.
The issue has been around for decades, but two extremely wet years have exacerbated the problem.
Farmers took their concerns to the legislature in Regina late last month, where they asked Dustin Duncan, the minister responsible for the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, to make sure the agency enforces its own legislation.
Some of the complaints dated back to the 1980s, while others are more recent.
“The watershed authority is legislated by government to stop illegal ditching,” said Barbara Onofreychuk of MacNutt in east-central Saskatchewan.
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“The watershed authority is not doing their job of enforcing the laws that stop illegal drainage. It is pitting neighbour against neighbour.”
That part of the province has a long history of disputes over drainage and ditching. Some complaints have gone to court and in 2001 rural municipal officials were fined for violating environmental protection legislation.
Onofreychuk and her husband, Peter, have been in a dispute with a neighbour for seven years.
She said the neighbours did not have permits and used backhoes and bulldozers to allow water to run uncontrolled.
“There are ditches that they can drive combines through,” she told reporters.
A promised culvert to help alleviate the problem hasn’t yet been in-stalled.
However, the neighbours, Legacy Agro, sent a letter in March to the Smith Creek Watershed Association offering to do just that.
“We believe it is in everybody’s best interest to resolve these issues be-tween ourselves,” said the letter, which was copied to Duncan and released by his office.
Legacy Agro also offered to pay $35 per acre per year for five years on 25 acres of Onofreychuk’s grain land that is hard to access because of a creek. The money — and free fence posts — would help convert the land to pasture.
The Onofreychuks formally complained last spring, and an aerial survey of the area was done in late April.
Onofreychuk said they have also had to dig ditches to remove water, but that doesn’t make it right.
Duncan said he understands the problems landowners have with drainage and wishes there was a better solution than forcing neighbours to complain about neighbours.
He said the SWA doesn’t have the resources to drive around looking for new trenches. The authority has to rely on complaints and then follow up.
The authority has moved staff around over the last two years to try to address complaints, and has also hired outside staff with experience in hydrology.
Complaints fall into two categories: informal and formal.
In informal cases, the SWA tries to help people work through the issues and come to a resolution. If that isn’t possible, the complaint may become formal, which triggers an SWA investigation.
Duncan said officials are about halfway through last year’s complaints.
About 175 informal complaints have been whittled down to 80. There are about 12 formal complaints in the system.
NDP agriculture critic Cathy Sproule said she understands that farmers are in a difficult situation, but the SWA must do its job and stop illegal drainage.
She said more than 75 percent of farmland water bodies were drained in the past five years, much of it illegally.
“Those small wetlands need to be restored,” she said.
“It’s not a difficult process. You just put up a little dam where the drainage occurred and those farmers need to take the responsibility for the wetlands on their land and stop dumping it on their neighbours.”
Jim Gerhart, executive director of integrated water services at the SWA, said he has never seen a situation as bad as 2011 during his 28 years with the authority.
Many people allege that unauthorized drainage causes flooding on their land, but Gerhart said SWA investigations often find that Mother Nature is at fault.
All landowners will receive pamphlets from the SWA this month that outline the regulations regarding drainage, including what is required for a legal project and the ramifications if the rules aren’t followed.
“There needs to be more public awareness of what is acceptable, what isn’t acceptable,” said Duncan.
