The Municipality of North Norfolk will see the creation of a couple more water hold-back projects than expected. A few months ago the municipality was approached by the Whitemud Watershed Conservation District, requesting support for a single water hold-back. However, just last week WWCD Manager Chris Reynolds returned to Council, indicating they had received additional funding, making it possible to create a total of three water hold-backs.

Mayor Neil Christoffersen says these are important projects, that both hold-back water to prevent excessive drainage, but can also create a reserve of water in times of drought. Christoffersen says the escarpment in North Norfolk makes it and ideal location for this type of work and says the additional two projects will significantly improve their ability to manage excess water.

"The way the topography is in the municipality, it just lends itself to holding some water back. It's beneficial so we were all on board with this thing to help out and partake in these water hold-backs. As a consequence, rather than doing a water hold-back for about five acre-feet this year by the fall, we should see water hold-backs totally about 60 acre-feet."

The three hold-backs will be located south of Macgregor, Sydney, and Austin and the municipality will be providing the equipment for the construction of the work. Christoffersen says while they're moving forward with three projects instead of two, it shouldn't take much time to complete the preliminary work, noting the construction should be done this fall.

"We'll start in September so we'll have about a month. The biggest one, I think, is about and estimated 11,000 yards of material to haul in. It's not a lot of dirt to haul in. In one case, the beavers have been at work and have shown us right where to put the hold-back. It's kind of nice, they have a pretty good handle on where to build them as well."

Once the water hold-backs are constructed, Christoffersen says they usually are left to settle for about a year before use. He says the hold-backs they've worked on in the past have worked quite well, adding Council's overall pleased with the project.