MUNICIPAL EXCELLENCE NETWORK
PRACTICE COLLECTION FORM
General Information
Date
February 10, 2016
Name of Practice
Malloy Drain Steering Committee
Name of Municipality
County of Lethbridge
Your Name and Title
Dennis Shigematsu
Phone Number
403-328-5525
Fax Number
403-328-5602
E-mail for Practice Contact(s)
dshigematsu@lethcounty.ca
Mailing Address
#100-905-4th Avenue South
Lethbridge,Alberta
T1J 4E4
INTRODUCTION
When completing this form, use your own words and share your practice in a story format. Please do
not include any derogatory comments. Use paragraphs and bullet points to organize your practice.
This is not a business case but instead is intended to be informative for your peers, showing them the
processes and outcomes of your practice. Be sure to focus on what you learned so that it is helpful to
the reader. Click on the grey boxes to type in your answers. The boxes will expand as you type.
THE ISSUE
Question
Abstract:
What is the practice you developed or are developing
(brief abstract)?
Please briefly describe the final practice developed.
(e.g. if you developed a new Council agenda, list the
agenda items, or if a new communications plan was
created, provide a summary of the plan’s goals,
objectives and highlights.)
Need:
Please describe (just a couple of sentences or bullet
points) why you needed to create this practice (policy
or process).
What issue made it necessary? (e.g. “We needed a
comprehensive plan to deal with…”, or “We needed
an annual forecasting tool because…”)
Answer
Formation of the Malloy Drain Steering
Committee comprised of representatives
from the County of Lethbridge, St. Mary
Irrigation District, Town of Coaldale,
Alberta Environment and Alberta
Transportation.
Goal of the Committee is to bring all
parties together to address drainage and
flooding issues in the Malloy Basin.
This Committee was created because of
flooding issues caused by major rain
storms and snowmelts. The Malloy Drain,
owned by the SMRID does not have the
capacity to handle these events, In
addition, the Town and County utilize this
infrastructure to drain their
communities.As well, Alberta
Transportation has also affected drainage
courses in expansion of highways.
The need to meet and dialogue to work
together was clearly evident.
CREATING YOUR PRACTICE
Research:
How did you obtain information to help design your
practice (including consultation with stakeholders,
formal and informal research)?
Please include any research documentation you can
share, or give us a source reference (e.g. Web site,
literature, “We reviewed the bylaws from other
municipalities in the area…”).
Process:
How did you go about designing your practice? For
instance, did you create a team, hire a consultant,
borrow something ready-made from another
jurisdiction?
Describe briefly who did the design work and what
process they followed.
The County of Lethbridge organized a
rendez-vous with the Western Irrigation
District to tour their waterworks and
stormwater drainage issues with the City
of Calgary.
The tour included viewing of the
construction of Sheppard's Slough to
handle stormwater and also developments
in the County of Wheatland that
incorporated innovative stormwater
designs in subdivisions.
Members of the Committee also toured
the entire Malloy Drain Basin which
encompasses a large area between
Lethbridge and Coaldale to gain an
understanding of flows and how each party
impacts the Malloy Drain.
After the Flooding events of 2005 and
therafter, the organizations involved
formed a Steering Committee in 2009.
Alberta Environment had granted the
County of Lethbridge funding under the
AWMEC Program, but because of dissent
between the parties, utilization of this
funding to improve the drainage works did
not occur.
With the formation of the Steering
Committee, effective dialoguing took place
with the 1st step being a commissioning of
an engineered Malloy Drain Basin Study to
derive flow volumes and remedies to
mitigate flooding.
Once the Study was completed, with the
remaining AWMEC funding, priority work
to widen a critical 946 Metre stretch of the
drain was commenced in 2010. Alberta
Transportation was very co-operative in
funding improvements on 3 bridges along
this stretch. This modification has already
improved drainage flows in the 2011 high
snow melts and spring rains.
GETTING APPROVAL FOR YOUR PRACTICE
Authority:
Whose/what approval did you need to create and
implement the practice?
Reporting:
How did you inform the decision-maker(s) about the
practice and your need for their approval?
Please note the name of any documents provided to
the decision-makers that you would be willing to
share.
Consultation:
Did you consult with stakeholders as part of your
approval process?
We required consensus and cooperation amongst all the parties to agree
to form the Malloy Drain Steering
Committee.
With the Committee in place, agreement
to initiate an engineered Drain Basin Study
was approved.
Finally, agreement was reached to
utilize the remainder of the AWMEC
funding with corresponding local shares to
complete widening of a portion of the
Malloy Drain infrastructure.
After years of handling flooding problems
independently of one another and ending
up in conflict positions, there was definitely
a need to meet and develop a more
communicative and co-operative group to
work through issues.
Initiating an engineering study and
drainworks improvements took consensus
from all as funding required cost sharing
between Alberta Environment, the Town of
Coaldale, and the County of Lethbridge.
We have the MPE Drainage Study and
Steering Committee Terms of Reference
for your perusal if required.
See above.
If so, how? If possible, attach a copy of templates,
surveys or other documents you used as part of your
consultation.
IMPLEMENTING YOUR PRACTICE
Plan:
Describe the process you went through to implement
the practice. If you used an implementation plan,
please note it here.
Policy:
What changes to bylaws, regulations or procedures
were needed to implement this practice and how did
you deal with them?
Please attach a copy of the change in bylaw, policy or
procedure.
See Process under "Creating your
Practice".
Communication and Steering committee
Meetings to bring the parties together were
critical in going forward.
The Parties are also working on a Water
Conveyance Agreement and Operational
Plan to further improve handling storm
events and procedures when large
precipitation events occur.
When:
When did your municipality begin to use the practice?
Was it implemented all at once or in stages?
Who:
Who was responsible for implementing the practice?
The Parties worked much better in the
June, 2010 State of Emergency when the
lands were already saturated from the
2009-2010 Snow and Spring precipitation,
exasperated with a large rain event on
June 19,2010.
Coaldale withheld their stormwater via
their retention ponds. The County
communicated continuously with SMRID if
roads or ditches were cut with the principle
of mitigating residences from being
flooded.
All parties in the Steering Committee are
responsible for this practice.
If someone else is responsible for ongoing
management, who is it?
RESOURCES REQUIRED
Budget:
How much did it cost you to design and implement
your practice (i.e. We saved/spent $XX per year)?
The Drainage Study cost was $150,000.
The Drainage Widening was $740,000.
What are your ongoing operational and capital costs,
if any?
Staff:
What human resources did you need to design,
implement and manage your practice? (e.g. “It took X
staff member(s) X months on this” or “This is part of
normal staff duties.”)
It took 2 Staff Members 24 months to set
up Committee, conduct various tours and
meetings.
Infrastructure:
What “capital costs” (such as information
technology,other equipment or building assets) did
you need to design, implement, manage, and/or
evaluate your practice?
$740,000 to improve a 946 Metre stretch
of the Drainageworks.
EVALUATING YOUR PRACTICE
Formal:
If you did a formal evaluation (e.g. user satisfaction
survey, analysis of annual expenditures or number of
rate payers served) for your practice, please describe
the evaluation tool and the process used.
Tell us who was involved.
N/A
Informal:
If you did an informal evaluation, describe what you
did (such as discussing the practice with people in the
office or on the street, or letters/comments received).
The County, Town, SMRID and
Departments of Environment and
Transportation are pleased with the
improved relationship building and positive
steps forward.
There is still work to be completed via
the Steering Committee.
Performance measures:
Please list the performance measures for this practice
(i.e. reduced number of complaints, money saved, or
change in equipment life expectancy.)
Completion of engineered Drainage
Study on the Malloy Basin and 946 Metre
widening of a critical portion of the Malloy
Drain was only achieved by working in a
spirit of co-operation.
The Drainage Study is now being utilized
as part of the Coaldale/County Integrated
Development Strategy Project to develop a
master plan for the Coaldale-Lethbridge
corridor.
Please list the process you used for measuring
performance, (i.e. We do annual surveys on…)
examples include:
 collecting data
 establishing a baseline
 applying the measures
 results
 follow up
Changes:
(a) Based on the evaluation (formal or informal),
describe any changes you have made, or would like to
make, to your practice as a result. (e.g. “After
implementing this practice, we decided that it would
be better if…”)
-or-
The Malloy Drain Steering Committee has
brought representatives from the
participating organizations to effectively
dialogue and work together on mitigating
negative impacts on each other; to
develop an understanding of each others'
operations and develop positive
relationships.
(b) Has your practice met your expectations and if so,
how?
LESSONS LEARNED / BENEFITS RECEIVED
Benefits:
What are the benefits of this practice to your
municipality? (eg. Preparation of Council agenda
packages now requires less time, etc.)
Key Lessons:
What key lessons have you/your municipality learned
through the process of:
 designing;
 obtaining approval;
 implementing; and
 evaluating your practice?
Include any problems, surprises, and unanticipated
benefits. (e.g. “We realized that we needed to spend
more time…”)
Improved communications and
relationships with other organizations to
minimize flood damage and to properly
develop and grow with appropriate
stormwater standards in place.
We have learned to not operate
independently of each other; that effective
communications and dialogue is
necessary to solve common issues and to
work co-operatively to minimize
detrimental effects.
Advice to Municipal Peers:
What advice would you give to another municipality
that is considering adopting your practice? Is there
anything you might have done differently?
PRACTICE UPDATES
New Information:
There may be some new information to add since this
practice was first posted. This is especially true if:
 a new process has been implemented in your
municipality;
 there are new practice evaluation results; or
 there has been a change affecting organizational
direction. For example, explain how new economic
conditions or a new vision/strategy affect the
practice.
Work together to solve problems of a
common nature. Be proactive in our
dealings, protocols and communications
rather than reactive and conflictive in the
middle of a State of Emergency Flooding
situation.
Collaboration, co-operation and
communication are key changes that have
occurred since the formation of the Malloy
Steering Committee.
Please indicate those changes here. Don't forget to list
any new documents that may be useful to your peers.
Then go to "Other Information" to attach the new
documents.
OTHER INFORMATION
Suggestions:
Please list relevant information sources that others
might use or you would be willing to share (courses,
Web sites, literature, experts).
Documents & Attachments:
Please list any documents you would be willing to
share with others interested in your practice (e.g. a
bylaw, a policy, approval documents, templates).
* Note: Most documents can be electronically
attached to your practice in the MEnet database. If
only a paper version of your document is available,
please send it with your completed Practice Collection
Form. We will scan it and attach it.
Nominations:
Do you have any suggestions of other individuals or
municipalities with municipal practices that we should
add to the Municipal Excellence network? Please list
their practice, municipality, and contact information.
Or, e-mail menet@gov.ab.ca and let us know about a
municipal colleague that has a really good way of
doing things.
Nil
Malloy Drainage Basin Study
Malloy Steering Committee Terms of
Reference
No
COMMENTS
Have we missed something; anything you’d like to
add to the areas we have touched on, or an area we
have not mentioned?
No
Thank you for your contribution to the Municipal Excellence network. Please return
this form as soon as you are able.