The Town of Collingwood has made strides toward improving the water levels in the Cranberry Marsh, however they say some of the blame for water levels increasing is private landowners not understanding their responsibilities and the town having little recourse to solve drainage issues on private land.
During their council meeting on Nov. 4, councillors received a memo from public works, engineering and environment director Peggy Slama and project engineer Stuart West on work done to date on improving drainage in the marsh after it was brought to the attention of the town earlier this year.
“I would like to congratulate staff for a relatively quick follow-up on this very valid complaint from residents and the improvements that have been seen already,” said Coun. Deb Doherty. “This marsh is critical to be functioning in the best manner possible to absorb run-off.”
Back in March, Heather McCleary and Nick Best presented council with their experiences living so close to the Cranberry Marsh, and the kinds of flooding they had seen.
Council chambers that night were packed with other residents with the same experiences.
In April, council voted unanimously in favour of having staff identify remedial steps that could be taken to reduce flooding in the marsh, and to direct staff to get all stakeholders together to discuss long-term solutions.
The town has reported that the marsh and creek watershed is two feet higher than the average level over the past 10 years, and the current level threatens the boardwalk and trees bordering the marsh.
Since then, town staff told council this week that they had completed ditching work on the Cranberry Creek from Cranberry Trail East to Dawson Drive. A beaver dam was removed by a licensed trapper within the marsh, and anecdotally, staff are reporting the water levels receded after this work was completed.
“Staff will continue to monitor for beaver activities and damming, which is a natural process, and will respond accordingly when needed,” wrote Slama in the memo to councillors.
Staff have also expanded the scope of their Stormwater Master Plan work to include modelling within the Cranberry Marsh. They’ve also committed to working with the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority on long-term monitoring of water levels in the marsh.
The NVCA has placed a community monitoring station near Pretty River Academy next to the Cranberry Marsh boardwalk.
Residents can help the study by submitting water level observations and photographs taken at the community monitoring station to the NVCA.
However, as part of the memo, Slama noted that the town can only do work on the land they own, noting that there are fallen trees in Cranberry Creek on private land.
“Private landowners are responsible for the maintenance of a watercourse through their lands,” she said. “There are no regulatory tools in place for the town to control the state of watercourse through private lands nor does the town have any authority to enter, maintain, or remove trees.”
Slama said that staff can only write to landowners to bring their obligations to maintain watercourses to their attention, and outline the potential risks if they don’t do so. She noted that dead trees within the marsh are not necessarily a result of high water levels.
“The emerald ash borer is an invasive species that is particularly harmful to Ash trees across the province,” she said. “There is also no indication if some of the trees were at their end of life.”
During council discussion, Mayor Yvonne Hamlin said she was in favour of having the town reach out to private landowners whose homes sit on the marsh.
“I think that generally, it’s not understood what the obligations are and what the liability is for those landowners if they’re not doing what they should to maintain those stormwater works,” she said. “They should have all this information so they can think about whether they want the town to take this over.”
Hamlin said she’s had many meetings with condominium owners in the Cranberry Marsh area over the past few years.
“I think there is real confusion over what their responsibilities are; where their responsibility ends and the town’s starts,” she said. “I think the more information we can give, the better.”
She noted that the issue is a prime example of how dangerous is can be when private landowners are responsible to manage stormwater that affects other landowners.
“I can see future headaches all around,” said Hamlin.
