Municipal Drains

Your property may be located in the watershed of a municipal drain, or it may be assessed into a municipal drain.

A municipal drain is a drainage system that improves drainage of agricultural land. Most are either ditches or closed pipe or tile systems buried underground. They can also include pumping stations, grassed waterways, buffer strips, culverts, bridges, or even creeks or small rivers. Municipal drains remove excess water collected by residential lots, industrial or commercial land and other properties.

Stages of Development

Community Projects - landowners can petition under the Drainage Act to request a municipal drain if they have a drainage problem. If certain criteria are met, the municipal engineering department works on a solution, which goes through several appeal stages until the project is accepted by the community.
Legal Existence - If all appeals are dealt with, the municipality passes a bylaw to adopt the engineer's report and the cost is assessed.
Municipal Infrastructure - The municipal drain is constructed and it becomes part of the County's infrastructure. The County is responsible for maintaining the municipal drain.

What Property Owners Should Know

How often is my property is assessed?
Are there any buried municipal drains beneath my land?
Is there a municipal working space along or above a municipal drain on my property?

Maintenance

If you have a municipal drain located on your property, you can expect that the County will periodically perform necessary work. Your land may be disrupted while the work is being completed.

You may be billed for your share of the cost. Municipalities can accumulate the cost for maintaining a drain for up to five years or $5,000. It is possible you could be billed for work that happened before you owned your property.

Remove debris from catchbasins on your property. Preventative work can help reduce the possibility of damage to your property during a storm.

Keep the area around municipal drains accessible - don't store materials or plant trees near the drain.

Municipal drains eventually connect with lakes, rivers and streams, so do not put septic system waste or pollutants directly into them.