by PAUL RAYNER

Water problems, so common across the province, are not discriminating in local rural municipalities.

Morton, Whitewater and Riverside are all having their problems with the residue of snow and rain over their roads. Each is suffering from a certain scattershot effect.

According to Morton foreman Richard Dyck, as of Tuesday, there had been two washouts on roads in the south part of the municipality. In fact, there had been 70 areas where the water had gone over the roads.

“Most of it is in the north east and north west corner of the municipality,” Dyck said. “We have a few lakes.”

Some roads closed a few weeks ago, like parts of Old #3, still had the signs up. Others, like the Hammond Road northeast of Boissevain, and the northwestern Orthez road, closed so no semis can travel on it, were added. It was a situation that could change quickly, as Dyck said at the time of speaking that he was just heading out for an update on the north west of town.

There was some snow still to melt and the water was running out of the Turtle Mountains. The culverts were all open, but it was a case of just too much water coming for the system.

“That inch of rain we got before is not helping. A lot of roads are soft. As soon as things dry off, we can get to work on them.”

North to Whitewater, Administrator Murray Jackson said there were about a half dozen roads closed, including one three miles east of Minto, and the boundary road with Morton just south of Fairfax, where the Elgin Creek was running over it. Like Morton, all of the culverts are running, but there was just too much water. Also like its southern neighbour, Whitewater is suffering from a problem across the municipality – including as far north as their boundary with Oakland. Jackson said they do not yet know the damage to the roads, but some might be closed for a while. He felt a change in the weather did not help the situation.

“It was getting away under the ice when it still froze at nights,” he said. “When the warm weekend came, it just ballooned.”

To the east in Riverside, Administrator Meghan Cuvelier Klassen said she could not give specifics, but said there were spots around the municipality giving trouble. One was a road in the southwest corner of the municipality by Les and Lorraine Houston’s where the washout prevented school buses from running and eventually drove the culvert itself out of the road.

She said there were likely a handful of roads closed in Riverside, but as of this point, it was not as bad as a few years ago.

“There is a bit of a problem, “ she said, “but not as bad as ’05. There were a lot of sites that year.”