Abbotsford floodgates partially open, Sumas dike repairs progressing, says mayor

Floodgates at Abbotsford’s Barrowtown Pump Station have been partially opened, finally easing some pressure on a city that’s been grappling with crippling water levels for days.

According to the mayor, the gates partially opened just before 2 a.m. Saturday, releasing water from the Sumas into the Fraser River.

“This has lessened the flow of water breaching the Sumas dike that has been flooding in the eastern part of Sumas Prairie,” Henry Braun said Saturday afternoon.

Good news: the floodgates were able to partially open at 1:46 a.m. and release water from the Sumas River into the Fraser River. This helps lessen the flow of water breaching the dyke and pooling in the eastern part of the Sumas Prairie.

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“It is our hope, at this point, that water levels will continue to decrease in the Sumas River so that the floodgates can remain open and potentially open fully. This is a good start and every little bit helps.”

Braun says crews continue to make progress on efforts to fix the Sumas dike, with the mayor estimating repairs are more than half done to address the larger breach in the dike.

He’s hopeful repairs will be done before more rain is expected next week.

The Barrowtown Pump Station has been operating at full capacity for days, with concerns mounting earlier this week that the critical piece of infrastructure could fail.

The mayor has said that about 500,000 gallons of water go through the pump station per minute.

“Well, the Sumas River with open floodgates will release seven times what our pumps are capable of pumping. So our pumps for Barrowtown — because there’s two parts to the Prairie — the pumps pump out 500,000 gallons per minute. So when the floodgates are fully open, they’re seven times that amount of water going through those floodgates So it’s made a tremendous difference,” Braun explained Saturday, adding he noticed a “dramatic change” in some parts of the Sumas Prairie just hours after the gates were partially open.

Earlier this week, a large group of volunteers showed up at the pump station when water levels were rising. They helped fill sandbags around the facility, also creating a dam to keep water from flooding the station.

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That effort bought the city some time, the mayor said Wednesday.

“I want to thank the volunteers who came out. I think there was roughly 300 people — retired firefighters, retired army personnel, contractors, volunteers, mostly I think from the Chilliwack side, but I’m sure that there was also farmers in that mix. I know some of them, I don’t know all of them, but I want to thank each and every one of you for doing what you did and coming to assist our staff who came up with a plan that would buy us some more time,” Braun said on Nov. 17.