Residents surrounding the Quill Lakes, essentially producers are continuing the war with water.

The water has been rising consistently over the years washing out acres and acres of farmland annually. Following a visit to the region from Premier Brad Wall and Minister responsible for Saskatchewan Water Security Agency Scott Moe in summer of 2014, the creation of a watershed organization was urged from the Government leaders.

Following many months of meetings and legislation paperwork the Quill Lakes Watershed Association No. 14 was created. 

Kerry Holderness is the Chair.

"It sets forth our ability to be able create a project, to be able to partially fund it ourselves and to go out after partnership for provincial and federal dollars to complete programs and maintain them over a number of years."

They have recently received a study conducted by KGS consultants, now the Government has asked the Watershed to come up with a solution.

"Every solution is on the table," Holderness continued. "What we do know is the water will probably rise again next spring, we're already sitting at a peak level. Any levels in water we lost through evaporation through out the summer we've gotten back with the fall rains. We are at record levels right now, we know what happens when we get a saturated landscape like this."

According to numbers at an August meeting last year in Wynyard, the lakes have already washed out 27,000 acres of farmland and 57,000 acres of pasture land.

At one point the water was going to be diverted to Last Mountain Lake but that was scrapped due to various concerns from stakeholders at both ends. The salt water of the Quills being a red flag for Last Mountain Lake residents and users.

"There is all kinds of ways from letting water go, to letting fresh water divert and go around," Holderness explained. "There's been some new studies come out on injection wells, there's of course the Government legislation right now on trying to doing regulated drainage and possibly finding some upland storage for that."

The Watershed wants all invested parties to have their say, you can contact Holderness at 306-383-7817 to discuss concerns or membership options. 

For now it's try to find a viable option at saving what's left.

"More land will be lost, once the land is lost, the revenue from that land is what compounds everything. The revenue is lost for decades, you know that is going to be very pricey," Holderness concluded.

You can hear more from Holderness below in his interview with Bolt FM's Clark Stork.