In
the past few years, the Ontario Drainage Tribunal has indicated
that a number of Tribunal hearings could have been avoided if
additional information or explanations had been provided in the
drainage report. As a result, the Ontario Drainage Tribunal
suggested that the P.E.O. Committee on Land Drainage consider the
possibility of preparing a "Standard Report Format". If
such a format was prepared, it could then be used by all Drainage
Practitioners.
The Committee has undertaken and completed such
a review. After much deliberation, the Committee has decided NOT
to recommend the preparation of a "Standard Report
Format" to be used by the Drainage Practitioners in the
preparation of their drainage reports, at this time. However, the
Committee did endorse the use of a guideline which could provide
the basis for such a format. The following is a brief summary of
our review.
There is a considerable amount of information
available that provides legal, legislative and technical
references to the practitioners.
It is generally accepted that the primary
technical guide available for reference by the practitioner is
the Design and Construction Guidelines for Work Under the
Drainage Act.
It is also generally accepted that the
primary legislation content guide available for reference by
the practitioner is the Performance Guidelines for Services
of the Engineer Acting Under the Drainage Act.
However, there is no generally accepted
reference guideline that provides a format for the preparation
of the drainage report.
Suggestions for a generalized format for the
preparation of drainage reports were provided in a 1986 paper
prepared by Wayne Wood, P. Eng., then Drainage Co-ordinator of the
Ministry of Agriculture and Food. The paper was entitled Comments
and Suggestions for Reports Prepared by Engineers Appointed Under
the Drainage Act. At the 1997 Drainage Engineers Conference,
Sid Vander Veen, P. Eng. presented the 1986 paper along with
additional information on Drainage Act Procedures, Preliminary
Reports and a list of publications and other literary references.
The Committee has recommended that the 1997
Vander Veen presentation, with some additional reference
materials, form the basis of a guideline for use in preparation of
drainage reports.
Attached is the presentation that Sid Vander
Veen made in 1997, together with an expanded list of references.
All Practitioners must realize that the
information provided is intended to be a guideline only and it
should be treated as such. Practitioners are reminded of Section
11 of the Drainage Act; it is you who are ultimately
responsible for the content (or lack of same, if such is the case)
in your drainage reports.
It is the intention of the Committee that the
guideline be refined, revised and updated as necessary to account
for matters such as legal decisions, current drainage practices,
etc. In this regard, should anyone have any comments or
suggestions concerning the guideline, please feel free to forward
these to the Secretary of the P.E.O. Committee on Land Drainage,
Andy McBride, at P.O. Box 470, Wingham, ON, N0G 2W0. In this way,
the comments can be reviewed by the Committee and included in
future updates of the guidelines as may be deemed appropriate.
Yours sincerely,
E. Paul Elston, P. Eng.
Chairman
P.E.O. Committee on Land Drainage
