Tired of waiting for federal disaster funds to flow, the B.C. government is providing the City of Abbotsford and its partners with $76.6 million to upgrade the critical Barrowtown Pump Station.
Premier David Eby and the ministers of agriculture and emergency management made the announcement Wednesday, more than two years after unprecedented floods ravaged the Fraser Valley and much of southern B.C.
“We can’t wait. That process is taking too long,” Eby said of an application to Ottawa’s Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund.
“We need to make sure that this pump station will be protected for the next atmospheric river event here in the valley.”
According to Abbotsford Mayor Ross Siemens, the Barrowtown Pump Station is likely “the most significant component” of the city’s flood mitigation.
“The pumps here in Barrowtown Pump Station are the only way to move water from the lowest-lying areas of the prairie through the Sumas canal and out into the Fraser,” he explained.
“Without them, the water simply has nowhere to go and the Sumas Prairie continued to be flooded.”
In November 2021, B.C. was struck by a record-breaking atmospheric river that caused the Nooksack River in Washington state to flow across the B.C. border, into the Fraser Valley, breaching the Sumas dike and forcing the Barrowtown Pump Station to pump more water than it was designed for.
Across the province, the rains and mudslides killed five people and tens of thousands of livestock animals. Abbotsford, its Sumas Prairie and farmers were among the hardest hit by the disaster, which caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage that the B.C. government and communities are still working to repair.
In June 2023, Abbotsford made a $1.6-billion application to the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund outlining additional resilience work for the pump station, the construction of a new Sumas River pump station, and the creation of a habitat enhancement and flood storage area to enhance protection of the Sumas River.
It has not heard back.
“I am very encouraged today that we are receiving some of this critical funding for part of this request,” Siemens said. “This funding allows us to complete electrical upgrades to the pumps as well as mechanical upgrades to the building, improve fish passages, and most importantly, install a flood wall.”
The flood wall alone, he added, means Abbotsford “won’t have to rely on volunteers in the middle of the night to sandbag to protect it.”
Infrastructure Canada’s Disaster Mitigation Adaptation Fund website states that project proposals will be assessed on eligibility and merit, and applicants will be contacted once all proposal assessments are completed. It does not provide a timeline.
Without funds to complete the remaining work in Abbotsford’s application, Siemens said the Sumas First Nation remains vulnerable, as does the west side of the Sumas Prairie, the U.S.-Canada border crossing, the local rail crossing and portions of Highway 1.
Sumas First Nation Coun. Troy Ganzeveled said collaboration on flood resilience is critical moving forward and he hopes the federal funds are approved soon. The nation recently signed a multi-government agreement with the Matsqui and Leq’á:mel First Nations, the B.C. government, Abbotsford and the City of Chilliwack to improve flood resilience in the area.
“Floodwaters don’t care about jurisdictional boundaries and that’s why flood mitigation work can’t be done by any one government alone,” B.C. Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Minister Bowinn Ma added.
“By working together, we can not only protect against future flooding but work towards ecosystem restoration as well.”
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