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A lake that was drained a century ago in British Columbia has filled again

The shallow lake, called the Level Place Lake in the native Sumas language, varied in size, depending on the seasons and amount of rainfall.

Sumas river, near the town of Nooksack in 2017. Sourve - Nesnad, CC SA 4.0.
Sumas river, near the town of Nooksack in 2017. Sourve - Nesnad, CC SA 4.0.

Nearly a century ago, a 10 kilometer stretch of Highway 1 between the Whatcom Road interchange in Abbotsford and the Yale Road interchange in Chilliwack, British Columbia, meandered along the southeastern perimeter of the base of Sumas Mountain and the shoreline of the vast Sumas Lake. 

The shallow lake, called the Level Place Lake in the native Sumas language, varied in size, depending on the seasons and amount of rainfall. Following flooding in the 1990s, the US Army Corps of Engineers estimated the lake’s maximum extend at about 80 square kilometers (31 square miles).

The lake and surrounding wetlands used to support sturgeon, trout, salmon, grizzly bears, and geese and was a destination for migrating birds and a breeding ground for both fish and waterfowl.

However, the lake’s constantly changing depth and shorelines were an irritation to early European settlers, whose farmyards were laid out as “dry-point” farms on narrow ridges formed by old lake shorelines to escape periodic flooding of adjacent lowlands.

Sumas Mountain from Sumas Central Road. Source – AndrewEnns , CC SA 3.0.

In 1894, a devastating flood prompted the formation of a plan to drain the lake in order to make more productive farmland. Work began in 1920, and by 1924 the Chilliwack River had been diverted west into the newly formed Vedder Canal. 

Additionally, 40 km of flood protection dikes were also built at the time, and the Sumas Pump Station was put into operation, which diverted the Sumas River along four creeks.

In 1984, the Sumas Pump Station was replaced with the Barrowtown Pump Station, a  higher-capacity water pump to keep the Sumas Prairie dry by moderating the water levels of the Sumas River.

The lake drained through the Sumas Drainage Canal and into the Fraser River around the northeastern tip of Sumas Mountain. The multi-year project, along with its massive cost overruns on the building of drainage works, effectively turned Sumas Lake into the Sumas Prairie, some of the most productive farmland in Canada.

View of Abbotsford, BC and Sumas Prairie looking southeast from Eagle Mountain (Lower Sumas Mountain), Abbotsford, BC, Canada in 2013. Source – Purpy Pupple, CC SA 3.0.

November 2021 – From prairie back to a lake

One of the worst-hit areas of flooding over the past few weeks was the Sumas area, just about 80 kilometers east of Vancouver, where major farmland responsible for half of the egg and dairy supplies to the city was impacted due to flooding.

The extreme rainfall brought in by a never-ending line of atmospheric rivers, melted the snowpack in areas that rarely see liquid precipitation, some of which lack erosion protection due to massive wildfires this past summer. This exacerbated flooding at lower elevations, completely cutting off many towns.

Well, today, it seems that we have come full cycle, back to the beginning of the story. “One hundred years ago, there was a Sumas lake. Then they pumped the water out to make good farmland. It has been farmland for the last 100 years, and now it’s a lake again,” Johnson Zhong, a meteorologist for Environment Canada said.

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We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend Karen Graham, who served as Editor-at-Large at Digital Journal. She was 78 years old. Karen's view of what is happening in our world was colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in humankind's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.

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