The Municipality of North Norfolk council received a visit from Whitemud Watershed Conservation District manager Chris Reynolds regarding a proposed cooperation between the two groups.

Neil ChristoffersenMayor Neil Christoffersen explains.

"Chris is the manager of the Whitemud Watershed Conservation District. He came to council and explained some of the water holdback projects that the Conservation District is contemplating this year in North Norfolk, and was asking if we would participate in these projects."

He outlines how the holdbacks operate.

"The water holdback is anywhere up to 35 to 40 acre feet in some of the ravines in the municipality to hold the water back. Municipal contribution would be to use the municipal equipment like the scrapers and the graders to build it up, while the conservation district has the budget to buy the culverts and actually do the water holdback."

Christoffersen says it's a win-win situation.

"They put the pipes in with the gates on them to hold the water back in the spring. When the water level goes down then they let the water go. It's kind of a win-win. It holds the water back at a crucial period of time and helps to stop some of the major water flows going downstream, so they don't accumulate where there can be the most damage,"

The mayor notes the District presented some good projects, but the municipality could only do a couple of them. He says they're sending their support after having worked with them successfully in the past.

Christoffersen says the projects are important, although one project doesn't look like a lot of water, but multiplying them one after the other every year, a lot of water is being held back. He says it won't stop water from overflowing, but will slow it down overland flooding and accumulation that happens downstream.

He adds they're sending a letter of support for the projects, and they're all in the municipality of North Norfolk and range along the escarpment. Some are south of MacGregor, some are south of Bagot, and some south of Sidney. Christoffersen says they're leaving it up to the manager for which ones they'll pick.