Saskatchewan is slowly working its way toward new regulations to deal with agricultural drainage.
Wayne Dybvig, president of the Water Security Agency, told members of the Saskatchewan Conservation & Development Association that the province recently concluded another round of consultations and will have more to say on the issue in the coming year.
“There was a commitment under (Saskatchewan’s) 25-year water plan to look at the issue of drainage and to overhaul our legislation,” said Dybvig, who spoke at the SCDA’s annual general meeting in Saskatoon March 19-20.
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“We now have a lot of input to work with and we have a good idea of where we need to go with this. Hopefully over this coming year, we will have more to say about implementing a new approach to drainage.”
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Dybvig said agricultural drainage has been identified as one of the factors responsible for downstream flooding in many parts of the Prairies.
Farm groups, including the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan and Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers, say the impact of agricultural drainage has been over-estimated.
They say extreme weather is by far the main reason for costly flooding that has affected dozens of communities in Saskatchewan and Manitoba over the past few years.
Nonetheless, both Saskatchewan and Manitoba have identified agricultural drainage as an issue that needs to be addressed through enhanced regulations or new legislation.
“With the recent flood events … there has been a lot more talk about agricultural drainage and many people see it as one of the causes, or at least a contributing factor, to flooding,” said Dybvig. “There’s really a need for us to look at this.”
The Saskatchewan government conducted an online consultation last year that sought input from landowners, farmers, water stewards and members of the public.
The survey determined that 87 percent of survey respondents consider agricultural drainage essential and believe that a new provincial policy on drainage is needed.
Seventy-five percent said they have been affected by agricultural drainage in one way or another, 12 percent said drainage should not be allowed and 40 percent said they were un-aware that a permit is required before draining water off agricultural land.
Dybvig said necessary agricultural drainage should be conducted in a responsible manner to ensure that the downstream impacts are mitigated.
“We need to use best management practices, and the amount of regulation should be tied to the risk,” he said.
“So if it’s a low risk project that isn’t going to have much impact, we shouldn’t spend a lot of time on it from a regulatory perspective.”
Consensus has yet to be reached on:
- How to define risk.
- How to deal with wetlands.
- The use of control gates on certain projects.
- Issues related to monitoring, compliance and enforcement.
APAS president Norm Hall said his organization is generally satisfied with the approach the province has taken to implement new regulations.
However, he said the province should be prepared to play a leading role in compliance and enforcement.
The province must ensure that adequate resources are in place to support new regulations.
“If they’re going to have — for the lack of a better term — water cops out there, then that component is going to have be provincially funded,” said Hall.
“It’s not going to be the RMs that do it and it’s not going to be the watershed authorities or the C&Ds (conservation and development groups).”
Hall said extreme rainfall during the past four or five years has highlighted the need for updated regulations.
However, he repeated a point made by KAP president Dan Mazier that extreme weather, not agricultural drainage, is the root cause of costly flooding that has occurred in Western Canada.
“It’s not drainage that causes the issues downstream. It’s the extreme weather events, the large snowfalls or the large rainfalls. That’s where our problems start.”
That said, APAS supports regulations that lead to a more co-ordinated approach to agricultural drainage.
Manitoba is also expecting new regulations aimed at reducing conflicts arise from agricultural drainage.
A committee of stakeholders in-cluding KAP developed a report last year called Toward Sustainable Drainage.
It provides a template for new drainage regulations in Manitoba. Implementation is expected to take place in the near future.
The committee that compiled the report met for the last time March 19 to discuss last-minute issues.
“At this point, we’re waiting to see when (the province) is going to enact the regulations,” said Mazier, who described Manitoba’s proposed regulations as farmer friendly.
If adopted as written, the proposed rules would make it easier for farmers to clean out existing drainage ditches and provide a clearer definition of a permanent wetland.
“It’s more workable,” Mazier said. You can manage your land much easier.”
Manitoba’s new regulations are expected to focus primarily on maintaining permanent wetlands.
