Poor drainage a nightmare for Gimli farmers

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/08/2009 (6050 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GIMLI — Scott Duguid raises cattle, not rice. That’s why the Gimli-area rancher gets grim when he looks at land that resembles a rice paddy more than livestock pasture.

A combination of heavy rainfall and poor drainage has left Duguid wading in rubber boots over land that should be dry enough to grow feed for his 145 head of cattle, which are currently landlocked on a degraded pasture.

Only 80 of his 240 acres of farmland are high and dry, a plight he shares with some other ranchers in Manitoba.

The province recognizes the problem. Last Thursday, Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Ron Lemieux announced $21.2 million over the next two years to improve drainage ditches and dams across the province. Many of the improved ditches are intended to move water off agricultural land, including in the Interlake.

But that’s scant help for ranchers such as Duguid, who will have to lead his cattle through almost 30 centimetres of water to the road to get them to the next dry pasture. Still, the new young farmer fears the looming winter the most.

"I’m not going to have enough feed for winter because we can’t get on land to make hay. There’s no straw, no grain," said the 28-year-old, adding that he will likely need to sell some cattle.

Gimli Mayor Tammy Axelsson acknowledged the problem and said the municipality is not up to date in cleaning its ditches.

"We know there are ditches that badly need to be cleaned," she said. "We’re years behind in cleaning the ditches and that’s a problem that started long before the term of this council."

To compound the area’s flooding woes, Gimli has been hit hard by rain this summer, most recently with 40 millimetres from Monday morning’s thunderstorm. "If we get an inch of rain, I cringe," Duguid said.

"The draining system (in Gimli) is not designed to handle high intensity of precipitation,” said Steven Topping, executive director of regulatory and operational services at Manitoba Water Stewardship. "It exceeds design capacity. I can understand their frustrations."

In nearby Arnes, Earl Disbrowe’s 80-acre property is covered with 10 centimetres of standing water, as it has been for much of the past two years.

Disbrowe feels he and his neighbours are getting the runaround from Gimli council, saying they’re reneging on their responsibility to clean the ditches so water can run off their land.

Disbrowe, 51, said no one has visited his property since the spring, when a municipal employee came to visit.

"It’s frustrating," he said.

Disbrowe bought the property five years ago to settle down from his job as a trucker. He had been reinventing his life boarding horses and grazing cattle for the first three years, but hasn’t been able to do that the past two years.

"I thought I’d get off the highway and get a local job, but right now it’s kind of crazy," he said.

"If this stays the way it is, I won’t be able to do nothing next year."

Axelsson, the Gimli mayor, said her council has been "grappling" with water management throughout the municipality and has established a water management committee to begin tackling the issue. The committee has so far earmarked $250,000 to identify and prioritize major projects, Axelsson said.

"We’re not ignoring the plight of the people and we know we definitely have lots of work to do. It’s unfortunate it’s not fast enough for everyone’s liking," she said.

 

matt.preprost@freepress.mb.ca