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March
9, 2008
Drainage Forum FAQ's
No Substitute For Experience
One of the ways that drainage techniques and skills are
constantly improved is by sharing information about what works and what
doesn't. You are encouraged to contribute your hard earned experience so
that we can pass it along to others.
Please forward your experience, advice,
stories, or pictures to
Dennis Shand.
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| Q.
I was
hoping you, as a representative of the Drainage Superintendents
Association of Ontario, could share some insight\guidance into a
situation that certainly is not new to our area. I am a
resident of Chatham-Kent, in the former Hamlet of Shrewsbury.
John Coxon and I had formally requested our Municipality to
maintain and repair the Nelles Drain, which is an agriculture
drain that our lands also shed to and flows through our
neighborhood (adjacent to a cemetery), and into Rondeau Bay.
Fortunately, John and I went into this process well armed
knowing the ‘Drainage Act’ and the ‘Cemetery Act’; basically
pressing that the Municipality has a responsibility\mandate (by
order of the Drainage Referee) to repair and maintain an
existing drain.
Unfortunately, the DFO and the MNO have, over the years,
disallowed any work to this drain because the mouth of the drain
is considered wetlands and will cause a HADD (Harmful
Alteration, Disruption or Destruction of fish habitat). I
am sure this can’t be an uncommon scenario with respect to
drainage? Is it?
It is
my perception that if the DFO\MNO has determined that we cannot
maintain and repair an existing drain (that is under by-law)
that they should provide an alternate means to drain our lands.
Can our Municipality not appeal these types of decisions?
Does the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (whom I
believe presides over the Drainage Act) not have an obligation
to defend\advocate its Act to the applicable federal
Ministries\Department?
The
Municipality is currently organizing an on-site meeting that
will include the applicable Ministries\DFO, their engineers, the
local municipal councilors, as well as John and I.
Basically, this meeting is to get approval from the Ministry\DFO
to go ahead with plans to maintain\repair our drain. If
this approval is not received, the work will not be done.
If this approval is not received, would we go through the
procedure of appeals set forth in the Drainage Act, or would we
have to appeal separately to the MNR and DFO?
I hope you
can share your thoughts into this situation, and give us some
ammunition to help us pull the cork from this drain. I
added some recent pictures (the date pictured is not correct,
they were taken 1/10/2007) of the drain, just to give you an
idea of how dire our need is
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Q. I will try to
explain a situation that is occurring in Scarborough
Ontario.
My neighbour and I share a
swale for water runoff between the two side yards. The
backyard elevation is higher compared to the front yards. My
side yard is 6 feet and his is approx. 3 feet. My downspouts
from the eaves troughs on my house drain into the swale
which located between the two properties side yards.
My neighbour raised the elevation 10 inches of the three
feet of property he owns to create a walkway,
blocking the swale, now he is complaining about a water leak
into his basement from the downspouts of the my eave
troughs. The eave troughs have been in the same location, to
my knowledge for 20 years. What can be done?
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Q. I have a natural
water course across my farm. My problem relates to beavers
and their dams that have been creating a severe flooding
problem. How do I control the water levels, without
destroying the beavers?
 A.
First, if this is an active farming area the natural
watercourse should not be blocked. There could be
landowners upstream with Municipal Drains or tile drainage
systems exiting the watercourse. If upstream flooding
occurs it could block the tile drains and cause crop damage.
Should this happen, you may have a future liability issue with
your neighbour. There are a number of other
considerations, however, there is insufficient information to
explore them. We also get into the question of who has
jurisdiction on the watercourse. Is it Ontario Ministry of
Natural Resources (OMNR) or perhaps the local Conservation
Authority (CA). Second, there is a decision to be
made....do you want the beavers on your property...
unfortunately, I don't think you will be able to have both and
here-in are a few reasons why. Beavers expand their
territory based on habitat. That means a good supply of
trees and re-gen that is consistent with population growth.
They have an average of 2-4 offspring per year. The
yearlings will then usually migrate downstream and create a new
colony and start the whole process over again. If left
unchecked you will have a very large beaver pond and surrounding
swampland. So if you have forested area adjacent to the
watercourse they will have a steady supply of groceries.
There has been a lot written about the use of "beaver bafflers"
in dams...these are piping installations that are suppose to
"baffle" the beaver by diverting water without their attention.
Believe me they won't be "baffled" too long. They usually
either plug them or go downstream and build a new dam.
Basically a waste of time and money. A viable alternative
is to have a licensed trapper manage the area by doing a
selective harvest each year.
Garry J. Fischer,
Land & Wildlife, Ottawa, ON
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