of embankment construction. CP Railway Belle Plaine Spur impacts CP Railway chose the shortest and most direct route to the Legacy Mine in order to limit the potential impacts on local watersheds and archeological sites, as well as the smallest amount of communities, residents and sensitive environmental areas. In the project application, CP Rail points to the fact that half of the corridor is already being used as intensive cropland, which means that the native terrain and ecosystems of that area have already been disturbed. By choosing this route, environmental impacts are arguably limited because they are developing in an area that is not considered sensitive. Both the South and North valley walls were cut into, including cuts over deep on the South wall, and up to deep on the North wall. Not only was vegetation and earth disturbed in this process, but a number of aquifers were cut through in the South valley wall. Cuts through aquifers within the valley posed issues of drainage and erosion, and the creation of steeper embankments caused by excavation and rail grade construction created slope instability in the valley. The natural state of the valley has been altered significantly, and with this came the need for infrastructure implementation in order to accommodate drainage and crossings during the construction phase and into the future. This included concrete box culverts that were installed on the bottom of the river valley in order to allow excess floodwaters to continue to flow uninhibited. A report was made in February 2015 that acknowledged 23 landowners that relied on the aquifers—5 of whom were listed as potentially affected by the cuts on the South slope of the Valley. In order to ensure that existing cultural sites which have not been already disturbed by agriculture and other industry were not affected, a Heritage Resources Impact Assessment (HRIA) was conducted. Upon assessment, experts determined that this site had low potential for the discovery of cultural sites due to the agricultural disruption that occurred prior. Two historically significant sites were found within the footprint of the spur, and under direction from the Saskatchewan Heritage Conservation Branch there has been additional archeological work performed which resulted in controlled excavation and recovery of historical material. Agriculture Agriculture has contributed to the increase of metal contamination in the Qu'Appelle watershed due to "agricultural tilling, irrigation, and use of chemicals." This metal then accumulates in lake