The City of Abbotsford says some houses need to be destroyed to shore up a levee and save the Sumas Prairie from becoming a lake once again.
At a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Mayor Henry Braun stated the need for troubling improvement as the dike that protects the prairie has been breached, and a levee should be constructed as quickly as possible.
The biggest hollow in the dike is about 100 metres long. The city plans to take assistance from the Canadian Forces to construct a two-and-a-half-kilometre dike by side of Highway 1 beginning Friday morning.
As an answer to a question of reporter, Braun mentioned roughly six to twelve properties needs to be expropriated to continue the emergency construction.
As a matter of concern Braun further expressed, “I sense you’re looking for a number, so I don’t want someone to think it’s 50 houses,” he added. “One house is too much. And if it was my house, I’d be concerned, too. But there are not many options here.”
Describing Sumas Prairie, it is a 90-square-kilometre low-lying agricultural region in Abbotsford’s southeast, and out of which approximately two-thirds miles is the previous Sumas Lake, Braun stated.
At present, the Sumas River flows north from the U.S. border in the direction of the Fraser River, and dikes alongside its banks save from refilling and reforming the Sumas Lake. Braun explained that the breaches in those dikes are permitting the lake to reform quicker than the city’s Barrowtown pump station can eliminate the water.
The plan is to assemble the levee alongside the north of the highway, among two excessive points, the mayor stated. Additionally, maintenance to any other breach withinside the dike will prevent water from stepping into the previous lake and permit the pump station to eliminate the water that remains.
Source: CTV News
