Recently announced, the Northeast Red Watershed District will receive $25,000 in federal funding under the Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Lake Winnipeg Basin Program as well as $25,000 from the Conservation Trust for a project proposal aimed at improving water quality by stabilizing creek banks and effectively utilizing water retention sites along the Edie Creek.
The Edie Creek is a small stream located in the Northeast Red Watershed District that covers a moderate drainage area of approximately 90 square kilometers and directly drains into Cooks Creek, with drainage subsequently leading into Lake Winnipeg. The Edie Creek has historically been overwhelmed during the spring season ice melt coupled with heavy rainfalls occurring during the spring and summer months. These forces of nature have been negatively impacting Lake Winnipeg for decades as the Edie Creek seemingly captures significant amounts of nutrients including nitrogen and phosphorus then drains these nutrients directly into the already vulnerable Lake Winnipeg. These nutrients ultimately contribute to the excessive levels of nutrients already present in Lake Winnipeg and in effect increase the magnitude of blue-green algae blooms. Inadvertently leading to the development of dead zones which lack traces of oxygen necessary for aquatic diversity to thrive.
To address this mounting issue, the Rural Municipality of Springfield and Northeast Red Watershed District partnered to develop three water retention sites and upgraded 18 culvert crossings along the Edie Creek. In 2015 the Province of Manitoba partnered with the Northeast Red Watershed District, as well as the Rural Municipalities of Springfield, Tache, Ste. Anne, Reynolds, Brokenhead, East St. Paul and Peguis First Nation to create the Cooks Devils Creek Integrated Watershed Management Plan. As part of the plan the Province of Manitoba used laser imaging, detection, and ranging (LIDAR) scanning to conduct a Watershed Retention study and found that the retention sites were currently underutilized and could store more water to maximize ecological and infrastructure benefits. Given the results of the Watershed Retention study more funding was undeniably necessary to effectively utilize the retention sites.
The funding will be used to utilize the retention sites, specifically through the construction of a diversion channel from the Main stem of the Edie Creek to an existing water retention site. The diversion channel that will be developed will cover approximately two kilometers in length and will consist of a large installed culvert that will be armoured with riprap for erosion control. The diversion channel will then be seeded with native grasses to provide a vegetated buffer and four acres of riparian habitat.
The funding for the project will ultimately lead to numerous benefits including increased retention site storage capacity, with an additional 30-acre feet of water, an increased capacity to retain inflows of a 100-year flood, nutrient filtering, and a significant decrease in nutrient transfer to Lake Winnipeg. The funding will also undeniably increase habitat and biodiversity and, most importantly, increase climate change resiliency in the Northeast Red Watershed and its surroundings.
*Additional funders of the project include, The Conservation Trust, Lake Winnipeg Basin Program, Province of Manitoba, and the Northeast Red Watershed District.