NWPStaging

Okabena is a Conservation and Development area (“C and D”) in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. It was defined and established in 2012 by the Minister responsible for Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, as “The Okabena Conservation and Development Area Number One Hundred and Seventy-six”. A Conservation and Development Area in Canada is defined as a governance institution that allows landowners to work together in developing agricultural water management projects for better agricultural productivity, better water quality and greater climate adaptation. The Okabena C and D area covers 14,800 acres of land that drain towards Moose Jaw River and is located near Regina, the capital city of Saskatchewan. The main objective of this study is to document the best management practice that is the C and D and big ditch drainage that have been implemented in Okabena to engage in agricultural water management. The study that was identified through a discussion with the Water Security Agency of Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan Association of Watersheds. The main problem that this area has been facing was that of agricultural runoff that is high in sediments. Individual farmers had cut ditches to drain water off their land to maximize their crop returns. These localised ditches were causing uncontrolled volumes and velocities of water runoff to the nearby Moosejaw River. Erosion and sedimentation would also lead to poor water quality as the drainage carried soil-absorbed polluting chemicals. Land that is heavily drained leads to greater levels of nutrients and sediments dumped into surface water thereby decreasing downstream water quality. Another consequence of the field drainage activities is the increased costs to downstream landowners due to flooding problems associated with greater flows of water moving across fields and longer durations of standing water restricting agricultural production activities. As all the producers within the basin were draining water from their land, they all had to take responsibility for the damage which resulted in erosion and sedimentation. The Best Management Practice adopted by the Okabena was the creation of a C and D, in partnership with watershed agencies such as Moosejaw River Watershed Stewards (MJRWS) and the Water Security Agency (WSA) for the creation of a drainage ditch that diverts the agricultural run-off into the Moosejaw River in 2011. The aim of the Okabena C and D project was to reduce sedimentation and improve water quality entering the Moose Jaw River’s main channel. C&D’s provide local governance over local water management issues utilising the knowledge of landowners. The C&D’s aim to develop engineering solutions like drainage ditches and flood control mechanisms. C&D projects embrace a drainage stewardship approach and through proper ditch construction with grassed waterways, sedimentation and nutrient loading into downstream waters is reduced. The Okabena C and D was formed after 30 years and 3 attempts. It was the first C&D that was developed in Saskatchewan since 1970s. It informed and facilitated development of other C&Ds within the area. In 2011, the project was initiated by Moose Jaw River Watershed Stewards (MJRWS) where a successful collaboration between the MJRWS, producers within the C&D area, and Water Security Agency (WSA) was formed. The project was partially funded by the government and partially by levies on municipal taxes. Engineering firms were hired to design and construct the ditch drainage and the project was completed in 2013. The total cost of the project was $900,000 and the government contributed $280,000 through a pilot project program with ongoing costs per acre for maintenance being levied on rural municipal taxes. Forming the C and D was a tedious process. The initial group comprised of 14 landowners in 2011. By 2016 it included about 50 producers in two rural municipalities (Briere, 2016a). Land was consolidated by bigger farms (around 1400 acres) The Conservation and Development Act of Saskatchewan, legislated in 1949, allows land-owners in a certain area to petition for a C&D Association. C&Ds are producer led organizations with an elected board with the ability to control land, design, construct, and maintain flood control and other works on be- half of producers within the area. C&Ds are also drainage, or sub-drainage, basins defined by hydrology of the landscape (WSA, 2017). Producers within or close to a C&D area can request to add a parcel of land to the C&D for drainage or take a land out of the C&D if drainage is not happening (Drainage Stewardship Upper Souris Watershed Association, 2016; Briere, 2016b). To establish the C&D, producers communicated with their neighbors and a series of more than six meetings was held between 2011 and 2012 to bring everyone together and engage them. Through a democratic/consultative process tall agreed to the project to move ahead. A business plan was created preceding the development of the C&D. The producers in the drainage basin also decided that they needed to form a C&D with the ability to control land and tax for maintenance, and approve future works. After the initial agreement, when they had the engineered plan with associated costs of building the drainage, everyone was consulted again and voted for the plan. The C&D board got consent of the plan from landowners and the Saskatchewan Environment Ministry. They had to get approval from everybody that had a quarter section within that area for the project to go ahead. 48 landowners within the water basin signed permits to agree to the plan to form the C&D. Landowners permissions allowed the group to receive approval from WSA and the recognition of C&D. They agreed to improve the main waterway through engineered designs, resloping, revegetating, and installation of control structures. C&Ds work closely with WSA. WSA has the authority to apply taxes to the municipal tax roll within the C&Ds for construction and maintenance costs. A legally binding petition was developed with WSA, signed by two-thirds of the landowners, and then presented to the Minister in charge for approval to form a C&D. Similar to the process of becoming a C&D, the producer group brings drainage works into regulatory compliance and new engineered works also should be approved by WSA for the construction to take place. Project leaders within the producers and the governmental agencies were identified as the champions of the project to enhance collaboration between themselves. Project leaders within the producers demonstrated effective volunteerism and leadership to build a community of producers that worked together for the betterment and committed to their collective benefits. The project was an engineered drainage channel to minimize the sedimentation and erosion discharged into the Moose Jaw River and to reduce the impact of flooding on farmland. After the C&D was established and the plan got approved, an engineering firm was hired through WSA to set out the drainage area and drainage design. Afterwards, a contractor was hired to build the drainage. The project was designed by the engineering firm AECOM. AECOM is an engineering and infrastructure firm that develops and implements solutions to complex environmental challenges and projects. They collected data and conducted field surveys. Their findings suggested that in the upland, the runs and ditches were shallow and farmed through normal agricultural operations. They noted that on the lower reach of the creek (south of the railroad), the slope is steeper and the channel becomes deeper and more defined. The solution to the problem was to control the erosion by shaping and sloping the channels, seeding them to grass and installing grade control structures. Ditches could not be made straight from the producers’ lands to the river because that increases velocity’s flow. Therefore, the project followed the course of the natural waterway of the drainage back to the actual waterway of the Moose Jaw River. Through the creation of the vegetated ditches, erosion and sedimentation is reduced. In addition to erosion, significant rainfall events contributed to runoff that could also cause flooding. In that regard, the capacity of culverts through the highway and the railroad were evaluated and adapted to meet the normal flood frequency criteria. They came up with a business plan for the producers’ area. The plan execution comprised of excavating existing water drainage streams that were within the topography of the land. After these drainage streams were cleaned out the culverts across the highway and the railroad tracks and other roads were more strategically placed to contain the flow to navigate it through certain areas to slow down the flow as it makes it way down to the river. Another important factor of the engineering was they had to hold back the upstream water to stage the stream and control the flow. For this very reason the natural waterway of this drainage program is gated culvert. As the water streams open up in the spring, the gated culverts hold back the water up top. So those culverts open from the bottom to the top and at first the top culverts stay closed. The construction of the ditch started in the fall of 2012 and was finished in a very timely manner by the winter of 2013. The three main channels did not get grassed until the summer of 2013. There was heavy snowfall and spring run-off in the winter but there was no damage to the project. The cost of Okabena project was CAD $900,000. The engineering and design of the ditch cost CAD $68,000. The construction of the ditch cost approximately $700,000 and there were some other contingency expenses. The project funding came partially from the province and partially from the producers through the C&D levies. The Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and the Provincial Council of Add Boards (PCAB) contributed through the Canada-Saskatchewan Farm Stewardship Program for a cost sharing project. This relief fund of CAD 2,80,000 was available as the government was trying to come up with a solution to the excess water problem apart from crop insurance and other ad hoc payments, which are band-aid approaches. There was funding available for producers to reduce sedimentation and erosion and improve water quality. The Farm Stewardship Program was to fund 75% of the total project costs up to a maximum of $280,000. The remaining were to be funded by the landowners and costs per acre for maintenance levied on rural municipal taxes.. The levy was $53 an acre and the distribution over 10 years facilitated the payment for landowners. In 2012, the Okabena C&D Board requested the local Government Committee of Saskatchewan Municipal Board (SMB) to incur expenditures and create a debt not payable within the current year, in the sum of up to $800,000. The amount of debt to be payable on completion of construction and finalization of long-term borrowing, but not later than December 31, 2013 with interest at a fixed interest rate not to exceed 5.6% per annum, payable annually. The local Government Committee authorized the SMB to borrow the sum of $800,000.