Landowners blame drainage system for new 'wetland' designation

Angry landowners in Ottawa's western rural outskirts are calling on the city to fix drainage ditches that they blame for causing the province to designate their land protected wetlands, potentially hurtingproperty values in the area.

Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources officially classified about 3,600 hectares in the Stittsville area as wetlands last month. That prompted local landowners to meet in Richmond Wednesday night to discuss how they will fight the designation, which brings with it strict controls on development.

Landowners said they could consider legal action against the province.

"My wife's and my retirement situation ...[has] just been taken out from under us, and we're not standing for it," said Mike Westley, one of around 60 affected landowners. He alleges provincial inspectors never actually set foot on his property before deeming it a wetland.

The Ministry of Natural Resources had not yet commented by Thursday afternoon.

Terry Hale, head of Goulbourn Landowners Group Inc., said the only reason any of the land is wet at all is because drainage ditches in the area, which should function like urban storm sewers, have become clogged due to lack of city maintenance.

"Stormwater run-off can't follow its natural course," said Hale. "So it's sitting on lands, it's being diverted onto other lands, and causing severe flooding on private property."

That causes wetland species to grow there, and that is the indicator the province uses in deciding whether an area is a wetland.

Hale said about 30 per cent of his 40 hectareshas been designated wetland.

"I drive this farm every day on my tractor. I cut hay here," he said. "It's not wetland."

Hale said he recently consulted a land appraiser who estimated land values could fall by as much as 85 per cent as a result of the wetland designation.

Landowners are asking the city to fix the drainage problem and support them in a bid to overturn the designation.

Coun. Glenn Brooks, who represents Rideau-Goulbourn, the ward that includes the new wetland, said he agrees that the wetland designation isn't fair and hopes his council colleagues will come to the same conclusion.