The Chilliwack
Progress Thursday
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Scene
Coin Art Local post office helps celebrate Chilliwack artist.
34
News
Protest
Differing views on government’s Bill C-38.
Sports
Challenge Live wires and watery tunnels at Tough Mudder.
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City stays calm as waters rise Dikes in no danger of being topped: engineer Jennifer Feinberg The Progress The mood was subdued at city hall Tuesday as the city’s top engineer presented a mostly reassuring freshet update to Chilliwack council. Water levels on the Lower Fraser are expected to crest by Friday or Saturday, and properties inside the dikes are not at risk, he said. Projections for the next week or so have peak flow estimates coming in at between 12,500 and 13,500 cubic metres per second on the Fraser River at Hope, or about the equivalent of 6.4 or seven metres at Mission. That’s more snow melt and rain water coming down the river than has been seen in decades. There’s also more rain on the way. “To put everything into context, we haven’t seen flows over 12,000 cubic metres per second since 1972,” said David Blain, director of engineering. But despite the high water, everything located inside the city’s 50 km of diking infrastructure will be protected, up to a level of eight metres at Mission. “Even the highest projection so far is only up to seven metres. There’s no risk the dike will be overtopped,” he said. “It’s not even going to come close.” For the 42 homes outside the dike protection, the story is a little different. Owners are nervously watching the water levels. Several could likely see some water on their properties, depending on weather conditions in the next few days. “Areas outside the dike generally will get wet,” Blain said. “The other thing we’ll see is seepage through the dike.” That’s expected. “But some (property owners) who haven’t seen seepage for years, are going to see it this year.” Continued: FLOOD/ p4
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Chilliwack resident Will Davis speaks with MLA Gwen O’Mahony and NDP leader Adrian Dix on Tuesday afternoon. Davis lives outside the city dike zone where he and his neighbours recently built a berm to protect their land. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Dix visits ‘the outsiders’ in flood risk Robert Freeman The Progress BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix visited Chilliwack farmers outside the dike Tuesday as the swollen Fraser River threatened to spill its banks and flood area homes and fields. “We’re here to learn and work with the community and municipal government to make sure we continue to do the best we can ... not just this year but in the years to come,” Dix said. A long-term solution to flooding issues will be expensive, he said, “but it’s very expensive not to deal with them.”
He said all three levels of government, federal, provincial and municipal, “need to do a better job” of flood management in B.C. Dix and recently-elected Chilliwack-Hope MLA Gwen O’Mahony talked with Will Davis, president of the Carey Point Improvement Society, during the Tuesday visit. Davis, whose family has been farming a property that lies outside the Chilliwack dike since 1891, said flooding was not an issue until regular dredging of the river stopped. He said gravel build-up on the river bottom since then has
pushed the water out further toward the dikes during spring freshet, and eroded more of the “buffer zone” that is part of the dike design. Davis and about 11 other Chilliwack residents live in this buffer zone meant to keep river waters away from the dike. The zone is part of the dike’s design and protects residents living on the city-side. But getting government funds to maintain the zone with protective works has been a struggle, Davis said, despite municipal taxes paid by the residents. “When they built the dike,
we ended up on the outside,” he said. “We didn’t build on the outside. We didn’t have a choice.” Davis’s wife, Shanda, said Carey Point residents have taken to calling themselves “the outsiders.” The residents chipped in about $50,000 to rebuild a berm that collapsed during last year’s freshet, and the B.C. government and city contributed $25,000 each. The city spent another $100,000 on a separate structure in the area called a check dam to redirect river water. rfreeman@theprogress.com
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