Quote:
Originally Posted by Riverman
Shellmouth resevoir can only store so much water an then it is basically a just a straight through river. ND, Sask and MB are all part of the problem. We drain, we flood. There is only the physical barrier of gravity - the land is too flat for the water to get out of its own way. As BJ said the only way to mitigate this is to reverse drainage projects.
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Lake of the Prairies (made by the Shellmouth dam) is drained over the winter to provide storage for the spring run-off and as Riverman said, it can only store so much.
As a former farmer in SW MB pothole country there has been a lot of drainage happening over the years. I seem to recall that my land was taxed on the entire farm instead of cultivated acres, so it stands to reason that wetlands would be drained to maximize production. I advocate for an incentive for farmers to retain wetlands or create holding ponds (maybe 10 to 20 acres per 360 acres) that will slow the advance of water downstream.
I still shake my head at Brandon allowing the development of Grand Valley which is located on the flood plain in the city. All developments on flood plains should be halted it is just dumb and only increases the problem of flooding.