A guide to drainage maintenance planning
Owners of fields that must be drained, taxpayers in drainage districts, upstream and downstream neighbors, and the range of stakeholders interested in environmental value protection or pollution prevention deserve drainage maintenance planning that meets field drainage needs, is cost effective, and meets drainage code mandates.
Some information needs will require greater expertise than is the present expectation of many drainage districts. Environmental accountability is much greater today that it was when drainage channels were first constructed in the early 1900s.
Information is needed that clearly identifies what should be done, supports cost effective approaches to how it should be done, and provides a means to measure the extent to which what is done performs as expected. Planning drainage maintenance projects using good information reflects directly on the wise use of public funds, both for taxpayers within the drainage district as well as for the general public.
It should be recognized that drainage channels have multiple functions. While the drainage channel itself is a resource of the drainage district, the water and organisms living in the water within the drainage channel are a public resource. This article hopes that identification of appropriate information needs for sound decision making about drainage maintenance will assist in opening a dialogue that leads both to adequate drainage of farmland and protection of environmental values at the lowest costs to taxpayers, neighbors, and the environment.
The information needs identified here reflect the fact that society, the economy, regulations, and the role of stakeholders in public decision making have changed over time. These changes place new demands on drainage districts, but the demands need not be onerous if common sense is used to achieve best management practices for the money expended. In addition, drainage districts should learn from the past to plan for the future. Thus, all maintenance performed in the channel, as well as the response of the channel to maintenance, should be documented and effectively archived.