- Parvin Yazdanparast
Okabena
Lessons Learned Okabena Conservation and Development Project
Okabena
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Executive Summary
The purpose of this research is to gain a greater understanding of how communities develop and adopt best practices for sustainable water management through community case studies. This report will document Okabena C and D Drainage and Erosion Control Project which was initially an environmental sedimentation and water runoff project but eventually grew into creating a conservation and development (C&D) area that allowed producers and governmental agencies to more effectively collaborate in solving the water issue.
Detailed research for this case study started in September 2020 and consisted of reviews of agency reports, technical papers, legislation, news stories, and presentations. Phone call and email correspondence with main project leaders and government officials concluded three interviews that provided supplementary information. Qualitative evaluation of the interviews and literature are the basis for the conclusions and discussion in this report.
Key Messages
⁜ Okabena was the first C&D that was developed in Saskatchewan since 1970s and it informed and facilitated development of other C&Ds within the area.
⁜ The project was initiated in 2011 by Moose Jaw River Watershed Stewards (MJRWS) and was a successful collaboration between the MJRWS, producers within the C&D area, and Water Security Agency (WSA). 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.
⁜ 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. It takes more than ten years for the ditches to get vegetated, however, the results in 2016 also shown less sedimentation and producers have also expressed high satisfaction as the water has gotten drained off and they have had better crops.
⁜ Forming the C&D was a lengthy and complicated process. However, it provided legal stability and the coordination to assure maintenance on main waterways. Currently, there is a board governing and overseeing the Okabena C&D on an administration and operational budgets levied on the landowners. The board is responsible for the water infrastructure in the area and deals with any issues or concerns that may impact the quality of water in the Okabena C&D area. The board follows the Conservation and Development Act of Saskatchewan to maintain its integrity and may consult with WSA.
⁜ 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.
Introduction
The purpose of this research is to gain a greater understanding of how communities develop and adapt best practices for sustainable water management through community case studies. Several “success stories” of water management are being examined and documented from different regions across Saskatchewan. The case studies represent diverse aspects of water management - waste water, drinking water and flood management. Qualitative analysis of the case studies will inform how best practices are created and how they can be utilized in other regions.
This report documents Okabena C and D Drainage and Erosion Control Project, a best management practice which was initially a solution to water runoff to Moose Jaw River and environmental sedimentation that grew into creating a conservation and development (C&D) district/area for the producers to work collaboratively together and with the provincial government. The project covers 14,800 acres that drain from near Rouleau toward Moose Jaw. The project was an organized drainage project in Saskatchewan initiated in 2011 by Moose Jaw River Watershed Stewards (MJRWS) and 14 landowners within the area with support from several government agencies, and private contractors. Okabena project was initiated in 2011 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 (Briere, 2016a).
Agricultural runoff that is high in sediments flows from the Regina Plains into the Moose Jaw River every spring (Drainage Stewardship Upper Souris Watershed Association, 2016). Individual farmers had cut ditches to drain water off their land which was causing uncontrolled volumes and velocities of water runoff. As all the producers within the basin were draining water from their land to the determent of the land to maximize their returns, they all had to take responsibility for the damage which resulted in erosion and sedimentation.
Erosion control was the initial reason for the project however it was swiftly concluded that developing a Conservation and Development area (C&D) would better support sustainability and provide producer control and governance over the water basin (Briere, 2016a). The Okabena C&D was the first C&D in the province built in thirty years.
The Moose Jaw River Watershed Stewards (MJRWS) found that some of the worst sediment deposition was between Rouleau and Drinkwater, and an effective adaptation was needed to control the sedimentation. Subsequently in 2011, MJRWS invited area producers to a meeting where they discussed water, flooding, ditches, water direction, loss of soil and the impact on the Moose Jaw River (Drainage Stewardship Upper Souris Watershed Association, 2016). As discussions progressed between the producers with MJRWS and the Water Security Agency (WSA), it was concluded that a C&D district should be developed for producers to have control and governance of the water flow in the basin. The Okabena C&D area was created in 2012 and the producers were able to effectively coordinate themselves and work collaboratively with Moose Jaw River Watershed Stewards in Farm Stewardship Programming to receive additional support and funding as a C&D area.
Eventually, producers and MJRWS worked collaboratively to develop the C&D and developed an engineered plan to hire an engineering firm to design and a contractor to build the project. To lower the velocity of the flow of water, the project followed the natural waterway of the drainage ditch to build ditches. It takes more than 10 years for the ditches to get vegetated, therefore, there are not yet before and results available. However, the vegetated areas have shown better results of nitrogen and phosphor than the non vegetated areas.
Concept Clarification
⁜ Ditch- a small to moderate divot created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source (Saskatchewan watershed authority, 2006).
⁜ Drainage – movement of water off of land, either naturally or manmade, unauthorized or approved (Saskatchewan watershed authority, 2006).
⁜ Watershed – an area of elevated land that drains into the same region and is the line between drainage basins. It is subject to surface and subsurface drainage under gravity to the ocean or interior lakes (Saskatchewan watershed authority, 2006).
⁜ C&D is a Conservation and Development Area which is governed by aboard. C&D projects are normally drainage or sub-drainage basins. The Conservation and Development Act of Saskatchewan, legislated in 1949, allows landowners in a particular area to petition for a C&D Association. Elected boards govern the design, construction, and long-term maintenance of works project and can levy taxes (Drainage Stewardship Upper Souris Watershed Association, 2016; Briere, 2016b).
⁜ Culvert- is a small channel that carries a stream of water or open drain allowing it to flow under a road or railroad
⁜ Vegetated/Grassed Ditch- A type of drainage ditch that is heavily planted with grasses to provide filtration (Needelman et al, 2007).
Methodology
The Okabena project was selected as a “success story” for water management by the Implementing Community Citizen Engaged Best Management Practices through Adaptive Management Project research team based on a recommendation by Water Security Agency. Detailed research for this case study started in September 2020 and consisted of reviews of agency reports, technical papers, legislation, news stories, and presentations. Phone call and email correspondence with main project leaders and government officials concluded a series of interviews that provided supplementary information. Qualitative evaluation of the interviews and literature are the basis for the conclusions and discussion in this report.
Background
Okabena is a Conservation and Development area that 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”. This area covers 14,800 acres of land that drain from near Rouleau toward Moose Jaw with eight landowners and about 50 producers engaged in farming businesses (Briere, 2016a).
Okabena project area that drain from near Rouleau toward Moose Jaw (Map 1).
Okabena C and D covers covers 14,800 acres (Map2).
Adaptation
The Okabena area has had longstanding issues with drainage and sedimentation such as repeated flooding and water runoff specially in spring and nutrient loading.
The Moose Jaw River Watershed Stewards (MJRWS)1 has the mandate of environmental stewardship and farm stewardship and approached producers about considering grassing (vegetating) the drainage that was flowing into the Moose Jaw River and working collaboratively to develop a drainage project that would account for environmental impacts mentioned above.
In 2011, a group of producers that had issues with the water accumulating their land and not flowing off established a cooperative to create a ditch drainage as a water adaptation to control erosion and prevent flooding. They consulted with the MJRWS and the project started as an environmental sedimentation reduction and nutrient loading reduction project but the idea emerged through the initiative of the MJRWS to reorganize as a C&D as a member of the board was involved in other C&Ds and familiar with the process. Therefore, the project was initiated in 2011 by the MJRWS to reduce the amount of sedimentation and improve the quality of water entering Moose Jaw River. As discussions progressed between the producers with MJRWS it was concluded that a C&D district should be developed for producers to have control and governance of the water flow in the basin. The Okabena C&D area was created in 2012 and the producers were able to effectively coordinate themselves and work collaboratively with Moose Jaw River Watershed Stewards in Farm Stewardship Programming to receive additional support and funding as a C&D area.
Forming the C and D was a tedious process. 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 that all agreed to the project to move ahead, they created a business plan between the landowners for proceeding with 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, tax for maintenance, and approve future works (Drainage Stewardship Upper Souris Watershed Association, 2016). 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 such as fisheries. They had to get approval from everybody that had a quarter section within that area for the project to go ahead and 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 (Drainage Stewardship Upper Souris Watershed Association, 2016).
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. They identified in the upland, the runs and ditches were shallow and farmed through in the course of normal agricultural operations but 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 and 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. A typical design of the drainage design is given below.
Therefore, the project followed the course of the natural waterway of the drainage back to the actual waterway of the Moose Jaw River and through 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 with a business plan and in producers’ area, it was just excavating existing water drainage streams that were within the topography of the land. After they 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 and for that reason, a lot of the natural waterway of this drainage program is gated culvert (see concept clarification). 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 Conservation and Development Act of Saskatchewan2 and Water Security Agency guidelines3 were used to build in the project. Basically, when the project was engineered, the water flows such as the water flow at the top end and the peak flow of the water entering the Moose Jaw River were identified.
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 and there was heavy snowfall and spring run-off in the winter but there was no damage to the project. The initial group was 14 landowners in 2011 and by 2016 it included about 50 producers in two rural municipalities (Briere, 2016a). As the land was consolidated by bigger farms (around 1400 acres), now there are 8 landowners controlling that same amount of land. 14,800 acres that drain from near Rouleau toward Moose Jaw.
Forming a C&D
The Conservation and Development Act of Saskatchewan, legislated in 1949, allows land-owners in a certain area to petition for a C&D Association (The Saskatchewan Gazette, 2014; Briere, 2016a) .C&Ds are normally drainage, or sub-drainage, basins defined by hydrology of the landscape (WSA, 2017). 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. Producers within or close to a C&D area can request to add a parcel of land to th