GrainsWest Fall 2020

Fall 2020 Grains West 14 EXCESS MOISTURE ON agricultural lands across Alberta has increasingly become an issue over the past few years. In 2020, several areas were subject to heavier than average snow melt and subsequent rainfall. This unpredict- able wet weather sparked discussion on how farmers may mitigate the problem. Increased implementation of tile drainage is a promising means to remove excess moisture from farmland. It has several benefits for farmers and the agricultural economy, and, if used correctly, is envi- ronmentally sustainable. These potential benefits have not been fully realized by Alberta farmers due to the restrictive regulations that apply to tile drainage projects. This is an area where Alberta’s UCP government may be able to apply its red tape reduction strategy. While working with the Alberta Wheat Commission (AWC) and Alberta Barley policy team, I have had the opportunity to speak to farmers about this issue. “Tile Drainage is a viable solution to the excess moisture and has even more positives, but the provincial regulations stand as a blockage to its implementation,” said Jason Casselmen who farms near Fairview. With a lack of alternatives, Alberta farmers have frequently utilized surface drainage. However, it has been considered a short-term solution that can create soil erosion and transport valuable nutrients and other inputs into culverts and ditches. Farmers have also found it difficult to co-ordinate with counties regarding surface drainage projects. Ditches are often not maintained, causing blockages that contribute to flooding where surface drainage is utilized. As well, where ditch- es overflow, they can carry debris from roadways and form blockages. As a long-term alternative to surface drainage, tile drainage may help farmers remove excess moisture, increase yield po- tential and realize other benefits. As water passes through the soil and is drained by means of buried pipe, the earth acts as a filtration system that better retains essen- tial nutrients and crop inputs. These are then not deposited in ditches and water- ways. The process also generates oxygen within the soil and can reduce year-to-year crop variability associated with the fluctu- ation of precipitation. With these benefits, why has tile drain- age not been more widely implemented in Alberta as it has in other provinces? A negative impact cited by the Alberta government is the disruption of wetlands. Tile drainage has been identified as a contributor to downstream flooding. How- ever, this lack of uptake can be primarily attributed to provincial implementation regulations. Jason Lenz is an AWC region three director and farms near Bentley. He in- stalled tile drainage on his property prior to 2000 and has seen benefits ever since. However, he said onerous regulations have made it increasingly difficult for farmers to install similar systems. This manifests in the sheer number of approvals required. It may take as many as seven approvals to green-light a tile drainage project. These include environmental assessments, Water Act approvals and water allocation licences. In many cases, this preliminary ap- proval process itself may also take up to a year to complete, cost tens of thousands of dollars and runs the risk of further delay- ing the installation of drainage systems. Because of these factors, farmers have naturally shied away from tile drainage as a long-term method of removing excess water from their land. The regulations have also created an unwelcoming environment for tile drainage installation companies, which no longer find it viable to operate within the province. “It may not be the intention of the province to drive away tile drainage contractors but the lack of opportunity makes it difficult to operate in Alberta,” said Casselmen. From the provincial government’s perspective, these regulations are in place to protect Alberta’s existing wetlands. However, the classification system that de- termines what constitutes a wetland can be quite strict and challenging to navigate, and more so than in other Prairie juris- dictions. In many cases, if bodies of water exist on land past casual rainfall, they are increasingly protected under the provin- cial wetlands policy. Many tile drainage projects have been denied under its re- strictions and it limits the options farmers may use to deal with excess moisture on their farmland. “The level of regulations that exist have created too many hurdles Gowiththeflow Tile drainage regulations present red tape reduction opportunity DRAINAGE DILEMMA