The Water Security Agency has a plan in place to help alleviate the water in the Quill Lakes which has risen 22 feet in the past ten years.

The WSA has held three open houses across the region showcasing the Kutawagan Creek project where concerned residents can speak with concerned stakeholders.

WSA Regional Manager Dwayne Rowlett explains their plan.

"In terms of Coles Notes it would look at putting a berm east of Highway #6 and building a channel that would take water out of the Kutawagan Basin and move it towards Last Mountain Lake."

Residents and property owners around that lake have seen enough as they want to protect their land as well as the fish. The Quill Lakes are salt water but the WSA says no saline would get into LML.

Kerry Holderness is an RM of Lakeside Councillor as well as a producer who has watched the water rise on his land, especially in the last decade where 27,000 acres of prime farmland and another 57,000 of pasture land was swallowed up.

He says diverting the water is great but that will create a pool and they will simply be a storage container.

"With this proposal possible flooding of another 60,000 acres of prime farmland and the last land just sold here was $2,500/acre with no compensation. With that if you figure out an average of about $500/acre bringing this out of the blue, that's another $30 million a year in lost revenue every single year."

Holderness says they saw this coming about four years ago but he does admit they didn't see the impact coming this quickly, Rowlett agrees.

"If we we went over to the table and we were standing at 2005 and you said do I think it's going up 22 feet? I don't think so. It's a wetter period than we've had in recorded history, would you foresee that it would happen? I'm not sure that you would."

Not only farmland is threatened, potentially up to $140 million in highway damage plus rail line infrastructure.

This project has not been approved by the provincial government, if it is the work could begin this Fall.

"When there was fires in the north this year, we were very proud of our province for sticking behind the people up there and protecting their properties and their businesses and they called in the army," Holderness pleaded.

"They threw the budget out the window, as far as we're concerned we are living in an emergency right now, this is our fire. Where is our help?"

Another open house is planned for Quill Lake on September 3rd.

You can hear more from both Holderness and Rowlett below in their interviews with Bolt FM's Clark Stork.