Agricultural Drains
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INTRODUCTION
The City of Kingston is responsible for maintaining three municipal petition drains. These are the:
- Central Pittsburgh Drain
- Cochrane Drain
- Pierce Blasko Drain
Municipal Drains are established under the Drainage Act which allows for three types of drains. The simplest is a mutual agreement drain where two or more landowners mutually agree in writing to maintain a drainage works, sign a contract and register all of the details in the proper land registry office.
The second type of drain is a requisition drain, where a mutual agreement can not be reached and the municipal council can proceed with obtaining an engineer's report. The estimated cost of the drainage works is not to exceed $ 7,500 or 750 metres in length.
The third and most complicated type of drain is called a petition drain. In large drainage areas this type of drain is established by a majority of landowners petitioning council for a drainage works. An engineer's report is produced defining the drainage area, estimated costs to undertake the work and the charges for benefit and outlet are also outlined in a final engineer's report for a drainage works.
The engineer's report for the Central Pittsburgh Drain was produced in the early 1970's and accepted by the municipality under by-law in 1975.
Some residents feel that the old report which charges maintenance at the same rate as the original cost of construction is unfair. Two options exist for this issue. The landowners can petition to abandon all or part of a drain within the specifications of section # 84 of the Drainage Act. A second option is to obtain a new engineer's report for maintenance assessments. This practice has in fact become quite common in the past few years, when a new engineer's report is undertaken for new drainage works. A new engineer's report would include a maintenance assessment that only charges benefit in the section where work is completed and all upstream landowners pay only for the outlet charge. This would be a much fairer method of charging for maintenance costs on the drain. Rather than abandoning the upper portion of a drain this still allows landowners in the upper portion of a drain to obtain the maintenance in their immediate area will be a reasonable and fair cost to landowners both in the upstream and downstream areas of the drain.
