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Water Agency offers flexible drainage options to farmers

"In most parts of this province we still have more than 50 per cent of the sloughs. We still have an opportunity to get it right"
farm drainage stock
(Shutterstock)

The Saskatchewan Water Security Agency wants a flexible approach to farmland drainage regulations that were enacted in 2015.

“We have tried a fundamental change to the way we do business,” WSA project manager Etienne Shupena-Soulodre told an irrigation conference in Moose Jaw.

The agency work with networks of owners in a drainage area.

He posed options that are in consultation for the next 18 months before possible adoption as policy.

The options work on the principle of keeping 50 per cent of wetlands intact.

“In most parts of this province we still have more than 50 per cent of the sloughs. We still have an opportunity to get it right.

“If you lose more than 50 per cent of the sloughs bad things start to happen” like regular flooding, more than doubling the nutrient pollution into the stream and unsustainable wildlife populations.

“If more than 10 acres of wetlands are drained you got to hold on to 50 per cent.”

Real pothole country averages 16 acres of wetlands per quarter section so eight acres must stay.

The small shallow potholes that dry up are “really valuable for wildlife” but wetlands under five acres make up half the water storage.

One option is when calculating how much acreage the group has to hold on to “throw away those under one acre” leaving half of 10 acres to keep on average.

“The catch is this: if you go to this we want you to hold onto some upland wildlife habitat — bush native grass, tame grass.”

Owners trade one acre of wetlands for three acres of uplands.

He said this option addresses the issue of little sloughs and gives incentive to have blocks of upland habitat which are better for wildlife,

A wild card option offers flexibility: “If you can achieve what we want in a different way we haven’t thought of and you can maintain 50 per cent of the water and maintain the same diversity of critters we’re open to it.”

It is farmers, not bureaucrats, who figure out the drainage works for an area with a qualified person organizing and mentoring the project through to approval. Projects are monitored once approved.

In the last year, the WSA has considered drainage works on 1,500 quarter sections with approvals on 1,400 and closures on 100 where usually no agreement could be reached.

The WSA targets 5,000 quarters a year within five years.

The province has up to 21 million acres of crop land with unauthorized drainage representing 150,000 quarter sections.

Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net

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