Drainage Process and Approval

V-ditches are narrow ditches of varying depths constructed or maintained by ditching equipment. Ditches with a flat bottom are called trapezoidal ditches. These open ditches tend to erode less because re-vegetation and maintenance is feasible, and generally move larger volumes of water.

Channelization includes any activity such as widening, narrowing, straightening, or lining of a stream channel that alters the amount and speed of the water flowing through the channel or natural waterway. Examples of channelization include: lining channels with concrete, pushing gravel up from the stream bed to line the banks, and cutting off oxbows in a creek.

An open ditch is a channel that allows water to move from a wetland to another location, such as a natural water run, or larger wetland. Open ditches can take many shapes and sizes. For example, landowners may drive a tractor, quad or truck from one area to another to enhance the path of the water and accelerate its movement.

Pumping moves water with a power take-off driven pump and large diameter pipe from one wetland to another (consolidation) or to an outlet, or spreads it across the adjoining upland with a large sprinkler or cannon type application.

Tile Drainage involves the installation of perforated large diameter pipe (four inch minimum) two to four feet below the soil surface across the area of a field where soil subsurface drainage and infiltration are poor. Water moves down through the soil profile into the perforated pipe and then flows through the pipe to a drainage ditch. When the subsoil moisture is drained to the depth of the pipe, the water stops flowing. Tile drainage is typically used in the United States corn belt, southern Ontario and high rainfall areas of Manitoba. In Saskatchewan, it has been used to drain surface water by laying a single pipe from the centre of the wetland to an outlet.

Wetland infilling fills a temporary, or ephemeral, wetland with soil. The wetland is levelled with the field so that water no longer collects, and cropping over the entire area is possible.