By Delynda Pilon

An exemption from the county’s subsurface requirements bylaw will be made for St. Mary River Irrigation District (SMRID) so they will not have to use encased carrier pipes while putting in crossings on gravel roads in the county.

Stewart Payne, the county’s municipal enforcement officer, gave council some background on the issue at Wednesday’s meeting before a delegation from SMRID arrived to discuss it further, explaining it was initially a private contractor who noticed that the county had different requirements for irrigation crossings, depending on who was doing the crossing. Payne said he checked with other municipalities and found no consistencies among their policies on the issue.

“When it was brought to the committee, it was approved that all water line crossings had to be cased, so amendments were made.”However, SMRID informed Payne that the cost of a carrier pipe adds a great deal of expense to constructing crossings and would force them to bore instead of open cut every crossing, which would still be more expensive than the way it has generally been done.

Trevor Helwig, district engineer, Bob Dykstra, vice chairman and Tom Crooks, general manager, made up the delegation from SMRID.

“Trevor has requested to have an exemption from the road crossing requirements,” Crooks said. “The policy, upon further review, is open cut for unpaved roads for all the counties we work for. We do a high standard of work, and haven’t had any problems. Encasing adds another level of complexity and cost to the projects. It’s very expensive, so we are asking the requirements be waved.”He added that SMRID pressure tests all the lines once they’ve completed the project, so they should catch any issues at that time.

“So it’s mainly an issue of cost?” asked Reeve Lyndon Hutchinson.

“We have three projects in the county. Over a dozen road crossings will be affected which will add considerable cost to the users, who are also rate payers,” said Helwig. “In the meantime we have signed contracts and we are ready to get to work.”

After the delegation left, council debated the issue.

Dale Brown, county administrator, explained it is mainly a matter of inconvenience if a line begins to leak and it affects a county road as the road would have to be shut down and the traffic rerouted. He added that SMRID has already contracted to repair damage that might be caused by such leaks.

Councilor Tom Thacker said he knows many crossings have been done without carrier pipes by SMRID in the past, before the county raised its requirements, and he couldn’t think of any issues that had occurred because of it.

“I don’t know if we really need it. Many are already in the ground with no carrier pipe. How many new lines break?” he asked.

“Very few,” Payne informed him.

“I agree with Tom,” commented Coun. Ron Harty. “Plus these are our own people. They pay taxes. I’m inclined to say just make sure you do it right.”

Craig Widmer added that SMRID is a reputable company and is ensured to be around for many years, unlike some contractors which complete a project then leave.

Hutchinson asked how allowing an exemption for SMRID might affect farmers putting in a crossing who are required to use carrier pipes.

“It is engineered, designed and pressure tested when SMRID does it,” said Payne.

A motion was put forward and carried to allow an exemption from the requirements for SMRID.

“If it fails and leaks they have agreed to fix it so it is an inconvenience to those who want to use the road. It is not a huge safety issue,” Hutchinson said. “They will fix it at their cost. It’s not like some contractor whose long gone when there is a problem.”