Missed opportunities to prevent disasters in Abbotsford, British Columbia

The “Gold Rush” resulted in colonization of the Fraser Valley. This “rush” enabled an agricultural community in the valley to form, while forcing First Nations from their lands and into reserves.

Additional settler-colonists occupy the land through European-type cattle agriculture. The agricultural community realized the area was so fertile due to the annual overflow of the Sumas Lake.

Draining, Diking and Irrigation Act was introduced by the provincial government. Private enterprises and individuals led the diking of the region and draining of the lake.

The Fraser River rose 4 feet or 1.2 metres. According to provincial government records at the time, the waters were “higher than was ever known before.”

During the floods of 1876 a letter was published in the Mainland Guardian representing the settler-farming community calling on the provincial government to dike the valley and engineer Edgar Dewdney put forward the first assessment to protect the area from flooding.

Various political legal scandals and in-action forced settler-farmers to undertake small-scale diking projects themselves instead.

Flood washed out all the efforts from settler-farmers from the previous two years.

This was the first documented reference to farm animals “suffering” due to floods. The government withdrew from providing relief to settler-farmers, and any discussion of draining and diking the Sumas Lake.

The region became a shipping hub increasing demand for agricultural goods and a shift from subsistence farming to production farming. At the same time, there was an influx of new settler-farmers increasing the vulnerability of farm animals to flooding.

A new Draining, Diking, and Irrigation Act was introduced providing funding to construct flood control infrastructure. There was a major flood with severe impacts as farmers were producing at a scale and the British Columbia Board of Trade and provincial government met to discuss flood control and disaster relief.

The plan to control the floods had yet to materialize leaving settler-farmers demoralized and angry.

This Act cemented the jurisdiction of flood control to the provincial government.

The Land Settlement Board in the Department of Agriculture was commissioned to investigate ways to increase agricultural production in the province.

Premier John Oliver mandated that the Sumas Lake would be drained to protect pre-existing farmland from flooding and produce new farmland.

Over 30,000 civilian volunteers and the army stepped in to provide disaster relief.

During this time public trust in flood control infrastructure grew and diking and draining strategies for agriculture expanded in the region.

This timeframe represents the transformation of agriculture in the region from small-scale to industrial-scale farming. This began a significant increase in poultry and pig production.

The Sumas Lake and Nooksack River in Washington State overflowed from heavy rainfall. Thousands of people in Canada and the US were evacuated.

From 2008 to 2015, the province commissioned reports under the Climate and Agricultural initiative to address agricultural production adaptation to climate change. The Lower Mainland Dike Assessment Final Report in 2015 showed several concerning findings: 

• The provinces’ dike standards were too low AND most dikes did not meet already unsatisfactory standards.  
• Of the dikes, the commissioners only had enough data to evaluate 78% of them, leaving 22% of the dikes in an “unknown state”. Of the 78% evaluated: 10% good, 36% fair, 27% poor, 5% unacceptable.  
• The report confirmed how climate change made the risk of possible dike failure and extreme flooding in the area high 
• However, funds were NOT invested into repairing or improving the flood mitigation infrastructure, rather, money flowed into building up the agricultural capacity.