Abbotsford City Council set to discuss plan to combat future floods

Abbotsford City Council will review a preferred plan presented by staff to deal with future floods on Monday.

Last November, a series of floods devastated B.C., with Abbotsford hit particularly hard.

In April, city staff gave four draft options to council, detailing ways to better protect the community.

Following conversations with residents, farmers and business owners, a preferred plan will now be handed to the city council.

According to a City statement, the feedback presented listed the following as top priorities:

• Avoiding damage to buildings, barns and other infrastructure
• Preserving existing land for agriculture and food security
• Maximizing opportunities for agriculture

The preferred plan calls for new dikes and a new floodway.

Related links:

• A year in song: B.C. musician looks back on 2021 floods, fires

• B.C. flood survivor warns others to check insurance amid rising climate disasters

• Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Merritt to get new B.C. flood relief money

Brett Gilley with UBC’s Department of Earth Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences said the plan was a good agreement with the challenges the area faces.

“Putting in more mitigation methods for events like this, I think that’s a good compromise, (but) not a perfect compromise,” Gilley told CityNews. “These are events that we’re going to see again, in the future, especially with climate change.”

Gilley said combating the potential of floods would be difficult, and he empathized with locals.

“It’s a terrible situation to be in. Sumas Prairie is … an old lake, it’s really prone to flooding. And so you have this situation where people have lived there for years, their lives and families have been there,” says Gilley.

“Some people might say the best option would be to move everyone but that’s clearly not something that’s going to be easy to do. And it’s not something that [locals are] going to be happy about. It’s going to be both expensive and unpopular.”

The City said in a statement the plan’s intent is to “preserve agricultural land and minimize impacts on properties by spreading out water.” Adding, “the level of protection offered by this option to Sumas Prairie Lake Bottom is up to a one in 200-year event.”

You can watch the presentation at 3 p.m. on Monday live online on the Abbotsford website.