The Council of Whitewater Region heard a presentation on the Municipal Drainage system based on an inspection of the municipal drains.
Steve Hodson introduced Lorne Franklin, of Robinson Consultants, who did a review of Whitewater’s municipal drains, based on a search of the town records and engineers report.
He said that the drains were award drains, which the Township does not have a responsibility to maintain, but rather a local individual specified in the engineer’s award at the time of construction.
“You don’t have a lot of responsibility for them other than protecting them and knowing where they are.” he said. “You should review them in terms in if there’s developments in that area.”
He said they also found two drains missing from the files, the Graham Drain and Pleasant Valley drains from Westmeath were also ward drains, which he suggested was missing in the amalgamation of Westmeath into the Township.
He said that the McLeod Drain in Cobden had “sedimentation has resulted from the nearby fields, so that’s a normal thing.” he said.
He said that there ‘at least two locations where there were sinkholes where the tile system was failing.”
He said that the McLeod drain required special attention due to the nearby Wren subdivision, including full maintenance, the inlet and several farm crossings must be replaced due to poor conditions, with the tile system being 39 years old and requires a Section 65 report.
He said the Haley drain was half tile and half open drain, and the three structures along the drain had ‘no obvious defects”.
He said there was also a beaver dam resulting in some flooding that submerged two of the five culverts found along the drain.
“One of our recommendations is to remove that beaver dam and finish that survey.” he said.
He said that the Township should update the existing Schedules of Assessment or appoint an Engineer to determine the drain’s adequacy.
He said the township should also remove any vegetation.
The Oates drain, which was found to be entirely open-drain, was found to be in ‘adequate’ condition, though there was no documentation on the culvert sizing.
He said they recommended “quite a bit of channel reconstruction”/
The Queen’s Lane, Franklin recommended, required a through inspection due to three sinkholes discovered in the drain, which was entirely tile-drain.
“The problem with tile drains is that they’re difficult to inspect.” he said, saying that the tile was nearing 47 years.
He recommended a CCTV inspection to determine the drain’s condition fully.
He said no deficiencies were found for the 5th line drain, which was half tile and half open ditch.
He called this train a “lower priority” due to a lack of defects.
He said that all of the drains had older documentation, and he recommended they be updated as soon as possible.
Forester’s Falls drain was also considered a “lower priority” due to no defects found despite being estimated at over 50 years old.
He said there should be a CCTV inspection program developed to be implemented “possibly over the next few years.”
Franklin said that the Stanley Black drain, which was entirely tile, had ‘no obvious defects” and could be waited on “until complaints are received.
He recommended a further search of the Township records regarding the Westmeath area to find documentation on other drains.
He said other award drains included Bromley Line, McLaughlin Road, Valley view Road, Concession 7 of Westmeath, of Wright Road, Graham-Anderson, and Pleasant Valley Road.
“What we really are recommending is that Township determine what level of service they would like receive.” he said. “A lot of townships are reactive in nature, only focusing on complaints. However given the age of these drains, it would be important to develop a maintenance protocol.”
Mayor Moore said that the Forester’s Falls drain was a county road drain
“If they were done under the drainage act, even though they might be in the County road right-of-way, of which the County would pay their fair share, the Township has a responsibility to identify and the drains.”
“I would like to see that Macleod municipal drain for assessment be prioritized.” Councillor Jackson said, siting the new Wren Subdivision. “The Village of Cobden never used to put it on the tax roll; they used to just send whatever to the Township of Ross. All of those properties need to be identified as having future costs in the maintenance of this drain.”
Franklin said that the drain was prioritized, and the tax information would be established, along was contact for the Cobden properties.
“There are detailed reports for each of these drains that are available for review.” he said.
Councillor Nicholson asked the difference between Inspector’s Reports 65 and 78.
Franklin said 65 allows for one property to be modified to fit within the existing report without modifying any conditions on the drain if it can be proven modification will not affect the drain, while Section 78 is an approval by council to modify the drain and to account for any severances.
Councillor Nicholson asked if the people who funded into municipal drains paid for it, which Franklin confirmed that the costs are applied to everyone to uses that drain.
“Do we track these funds from the municipal drain?” Councillor Nicholson asked
“We will. At this point we’re not up to snuff with this presentation.” Treasurer Sean Crozier said. Saying that they would collect the funds for maintenance as they do.
CAO Trembley said that they hadn’t charged anyone back because they “hadn’t done any maintenance” and that that their current priority was “building staff capacity.”
“It will take a little bit of time to fix but i think this gets us at least to understand what we have and the path forward.” he said.
Roads manager Lane Cleroux said that all the work was done by the Drain Superintendent and was funded by the province for these surveys, but ‘any future works would be.”
Franklin said that the superintendent costs could not be assessed back to the property owners.
CAO Trembley said that staff would follow up in the future with the report, which would come back to Council.
“I would encourage we find some way to reach out to these people and let them know what we’re finding.” Nicholson said, saying he wanted Council to contact locals living near the drains.
He also pointed out a drain behind the museum in Forester’s Falls that was ‘believed’ to be from the road, at the gazebo.
Franklin said that he ‘did not believe it was a municipal drain, but I would be willing to report on it with more information.”, which would be covered under the current Drainage Superintendent Agreement.
Dave Mackay asked about the catch basins on the Stanley Black drain that come near “the track”, which Franklin said they would be “if they were on the municipal drain.”
Councillor Jackson said it was important for Council to know “what can be billed back and what can’t.”
Lane Cleroux said that the next step was to publish the drainage maps “to be more open and more public with this.”
Councillor Olmstead said that the report for the Wren should be changed to 78 due to a subdivision development.
He asked if the drain was “build to withstand that kind of development.”
Franklin said that the report found that the drain would ‘provide sufficient capacity’ for the current development, but would ‘probably be near its capacity’ regarding potential future development.
CAO Trembley said that the report was part of the subdivision plan “as a whole”, which was identified as a block on the plan.
Franklin confirmed.
Councillor Nicholson then asked about the storm drains in the settlement areas such as Westmeath or Beachburg, and if they just fell under the Township’s department.
“With municipal drains, they are to provide drainage for areas not part of the watercourses.” Lane Cleroux said. ”Anyone who is not frontage on watercourse does not have a right to provide water in there. That’s why the Drainage Act provides admissible drains to accommodate that. It’s one of the oldest acts in Canada.”
CAO Trembley said that some of the storm drains were on County property.
“This was on our radar for a while, this is our strategic priority.” CAO Trembley said. “This is a great report and it gives us an idea of where we go.”
“The importance of drainage to the farmers is that 60% of production has gone up because you drained your farm. That’s why it’s been around so long, that’s why it’s so important to the province and the country.” Dave Mackay said.
There were no further questions.
