An additional $7.5 million has been put towards flood mitigation projects in Grand Forks, bringing to $39.1 million the total investment in the community since the devastating floods of 2018.
The latest round of funding, delivered through the Disaster Risk Reduction-Climate Adaptation stream of the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF) administered by the Union of BC Municipalities, supported construction of a 714-metre dike and 505-metre drainage system in the southern portion of the city.
Previous funding from the CEPF helped Grand Forks remove a 1974 dike to restore an original floodplain while creating a 1.8-hectare off-river bypass channel to reduce flood risk and provide fish habitat.
The investments followed a 200-year flood of the Kettle and Granby rivers on May 10, 2018 that overwhelmed infrastructure built following the severe historic floods of 1948.
The disaster of 2018 as the result of high temperatures that led to rapid snowmelt followed by three days of rain – a scenario quite different from what local farmers face this year as a more variable climate makes extreme weather more devastating.
Fred Elsaesser of Advance Nurseries lost access to 50 of the 350 acres near the Kettle River where it grows hardy deciduous trees shipped across North America. The flood carved a new channel for the river through his land, burying trees in three feet of silt and washing the rest downstream to the US.
Rancher John Mehmal lost riverside fencing and had to rehabilitate fields damaged by the floods.
Compensation under the disaster financial assistance (DFA) program was slow to come, with many farmers seeing little if anything. A buyout program aimed at restoring the floodplain in 2020 focused on residential properties.
While farmers across the province have advocated for greater investments in diking infrastructure – something underway in Abbotsford, where the province announced funding for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station earlier this year – many farmers have been underwhelmed by the eligibility criteria and payouts through the disaster financial assistance program.
With files from Tom Walker
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