A new program through the Seine Rat River Conservation District would see all the culverts in the La Broquerie municipality mapped and measured.

The Seine Rat River Conservation District (SRRCD) says this partnership will develop sustainable surface water management strategies in the Seine River. Reeve Lewis Weiss says the municipality decided to participate, at a cost of $4,000, because it will be beneficial for future drainage planning.

"They would make a mapping system of all the culverts we have in the entire municipality, measure the heights on both ends, the in and out, and whether they're blocked or not. I personally believe that would be very valuable information for our RM and any RM."

The SRRCD recently completed a similar project with the Roseau River to optimize water management.

In their project assessment it says, "Field staff used global positioning satellite (GPS) survey equipment to record information about culverts throughout the watershed. The data collected throughout the surface water assessment is being analyzed using computer mapping software to show culvert locations and alignments for hydro-conditioning Digital Elevation Models (DEM)."

The assessment states the hydro-conditioning DEM surface water models can be used to identify sites where BMPs (Best Management Practices) will be most beneficial to the community.

Weiss adds in addition to the LiDar mapping this summer, the information gathered from the culvert inventory project will be very beneficial going forward.