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.