CENTERVILLE, Ind. – A Wayne County farmer is hoping to persuade Hoosier legislators to support a change in the law regarding who oversees legal drain maintenance in the state.

Steve Slonaker, owner of Slonaker Farm Management, would like county drainage boards to have complete authority over drain maintenance. An Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) official said which government entity has the authority to approve maintenance depends on who plans to do the work.

To raise awareness among the state’s farmers, Slonaker sent out 4,700 virtual and physical post cards in June to producers in every county in the state. Slonaker would like recipients who agree with him to contact their legislators or Indiana Farm Bureau county presidents.

“We think there are some changes needed here,” he said. “We ought to be treated equitably in agriculture. It’s an industry issue, it’s not my issue. It’s impacting agriculture in several ways, including making farmers less productive. This has not been very well disclosed to Indiana agriculture. I’m not giving up. I’m not going to quit. I’m an advocate for Indiana ag.”

Slonaker said he’s surprised by IDNR’s position. “They’re known for being good stewards of parks. This is detrimental to their brand name.”

County drainage boards and county surveyors “have authority for board/surveyor-authorized and board/surveyor-constructed projects within regulated drains,” Ryan Mueller, deputy director of regulatory services with IDNR, said in an email. “No new legislation has been enacted to change or reduce this authority.

“A landowner or private individual proposing to work within a regulated drain (where the individual is not an authorized representative of the county drainage board or county surveyor) may still need a construction in the floodway permit from DNR, depending on the size, scope and location of the project.”

Slonaker has researched drain maintenance regulations since last year when he was fined by IDNR while attempting to clear a drain on his property without a permit. In March, he was removing 18 small trees from a county legal drain to repair flood erosion when IDNR stopped the work. The county’s drainage board had approved the project. Three years before, he had repaired a bigger area of the same drain with county approval and no IDNR permits.

Gordon Moore, Wayne County surveyor, said he and the county drainage board approved Slonaker’s request last year to clear the trees from the drain. The excellent drain work Slonaker did in the past contributed to him receiving the local approval, Moore said.

“We were surprised that IDNR had stepped in and overrode the drainage board,” Moore explained. “He was fined because he didn’t get a state permit. We see having the landowners do the work as a way to save money and not raise assessments.”

Slonaker said he spent 40 hours last year completing the paperwork for the state permits. He said he waited more than four months to receive them. He would like to see agricultural drainage work be exempt from state permits.

Jeff Cummins, associate director for policy engagement for Indiana Farm Bureau, said IDNR and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) may require permits to be sure any work doesn’t have a negative impact. “You can impact downstream landowners,” he noted. “I certainly understand the need to make the process more streamlined and efficient. But you want to be sure the property rights of those who live downstream aren’t violated.”

Moore said some review of proposed drain work is necessary. “You have to have someone overseeing this to be sure the work doesn’t impact someone upstream or downstream from you,” he said.

Landowners wanting to do maintenance work on their drains should contact IDNR before they begin a project, Mueller said. They can check what permits might be necessary from IDNR and IDEM by visiting the Waterways Portal at https://www.in.gov/waterways.

Mueller said permits may be needed from IDNR for work such as fill, excavation and/or land grading within the floodway, bank stabilization and construction of bridges and private access crossings. Activities that are exempt from the permitting process – if certain criteria are met and procedures are followed – include clearing of brush, removal of trees (if stumps are left in place), removal of logjams and limited creek rock removal, he said.

Slonaker also has concerns about an IDNR floodplain map released in 2019. The agency’s map is more restrictive than a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) map released a few years before, he said, as it added more acreage considered to be in a floodplain. Some farmers with land previously considered out of a flood zone now find themselves in one and many don’t realize it, he stated.

FEMA approved new flood maps in 2015, Moore said. The maps were released after public hearings and notifications, he pointed out. Moore said IDNR’s 2019 maps were released with no public notification.

“The county was working off the FEMA maps approved in 2015,” he said. “They were issuing building permits based on those maps. The planning department in good faith issued permits. The IDNR maps did change the floodplain in our county.”

Mueller said IDNR’s Division of Water was commissioned by the state’s Office of Rural and Community Affairs to provide floodway and floodplain analysis and mapping for more than 18,000 miles of rivers and streams, even if they weren’t already on a FEMA map.

“Approximately 8,000 miles of stream were studied that were not previously identified on (FEMA’s) Flood Insurance Rate Maps,” he said. “Approximately 10,000 miles of stream were restudied. This effort delivered critical public safety information and helps communicate flood risk to communities and property owners near rivers and streams. The Indiana Best Available Floodplain Layer (BAFL) increased the number of mapped streams with identified floodplains. The project to create the BAFL addressed the fact that FEMA’s Flood Insurance Rate Maps are not comprehensive depictions of flood risk throughout the state.”

The BAFL, which communicates flood risk to landowners and communities, should be used for regulatory decisions and planning purposes, Mueller said. FEMA’s Flood Insurance Rate Maps still need to be used for flood insurance applications related to the National Flood Insurance Program, he added.