A Foothills couple is appealing for help to bail them out and protect their home east of Okotoks after more than a decade of fighting against water pouring in from neighbouring land.
Murray and Liz Slezak say the source of their issues stems back to shortly after they bought their home near the Saskatoon Farm in 2002, when work began on the nearby Korn subdivision. The problem, they said, is it filled in an existing wetland and stream and water ended up draining toward their home.
“It was a wetland, a really wet land,” said Liz. “When people started moving in they started hauling in truckload after truckload of fill, so all that water that was up there now comes to the Slezak house.”
When heavy rains fell in 2005, it brought a torrent of water from the surrounding area into the Slezaks’ back yard. Their home sustained damage and Murray was forced to spend his days outside, pumping water to higher ground.
The same area flooded the following spring during run-offs and rain, so the Slezaks reached out to the MD of Foothills and the Province for help. The couple said development cut off a natural drainage course in the area and they wanted someone to step up and restore a seasonal channel that could alleviate their water woes.
Murray said a seasonal spring ran through their property and adjacent lands carrying water away from the area and through a culvert under Highway 2.
He said it’s unknown who has jurisdiction over the stream, the provincial government or MD, or which party is responsible for the flooding.
MD Coun. Ted Mills said the municipality is sympathetic to the situation and is doing everything it can to help the Slezaks, who aren’t alone in their position.
In the 90s, when the Korn subdivision was approved, only water and sewer plans were required, he said. Since then rules have changes requiring a storm water plan for each development in the MD to ensure neighbours aren’t adversely affected.
“We have half a dozen or so of these situations throughout the MD,” said Mills. “These are due to subdivision approvals that date back to before storm water management was part of the development permit process.”
Mills said he feels bad for the Slezaks and wishes more could be done. He has been out to the property several times and even helped sandbag the house on one occasion.
Mills said the best solution would be to open the existing seasonal stream to allow water to flow naturally away from the area. It is partially blocked on neighbouring properties, he said, and MD council set funds aside years ago to do the engineering required to open the channel.
“To proceed to the next step, we need to have all the residents on-track and in agreement to having a drainage easement through their property using the existing channel,” said Mills. “Several times we’ve requested the ability to do this, but there’s never been any other appetite for it so we’re a little hamstrung.”
As an interim solution to the ongoing problem, the MD has promised the Slezaks it will provide pumps and piping to remove water from their site during flooding. Mills said it will take a lot of pipe to move the water off-site, but the municipality has the ability to pump the water when necessary.
Though they call it a Band-Aid solution, it’s welcomed by the couple, who have now been told by Alberta Environment they can no longer pump the water themselves because the area that floods has been deemed an ephemeral basin. According to Albert Environment, an ephemeral basin is a waterbody that exists only for short periods of time, but actions a landowner can take are also limited and subject to provincial approval.
“If the water occurs naturally, they can make an application for dewatering,” said Kyle Ferguson, a spokesperson for Alberta Environment and Parks, in a written statement.
The Slezaks could file an application under either the Water Act or Public Lands Act to pump water from their property when it threatens to flood the home, he said.
Ferguson said the MD needs to step in and develop a solution.
“The Government understands the difficulty flooding causes for Albertans and seeks to work with them to minimize its impacts,” he said. “In general, if other property development is the cause of the flooding the landowner should be working with the local authority for a solution, as the upstream development may not be following the drainage plan approved by the local authority.”
This response has the Slezaks shaking their heads in frustration. Murray said they’ve heard different answers to the problem repeatedly over 11 years, and he’s tired of getting the runaround.
“We want our land back,” said Murray. “We don’t want to be afraid to go somewhere because our house has flooded twice.”
At age 79, he said he’s getting tired of keeping a constant vigil over his land in case the water rises and he has to spend days – or sometimes weeks – pumping it out. It’s stolen 11 years of their lives, he said, and they won’t ever get those back.
It’s also hurting their pocketbook. Between horses getting sick from stagnant water, flooding damage to the house and land that will require truckloads of loam to become arable, the Slezaks said they’ve spent well over $50,000 so far and expect more bills in the future.
“Being pumped out all the time by myself or the MD, that’s not normal living,” said Murray. “We came out here because we thought it was going to be our retirement. But it’s ruined our retirement.”
