No fluke: an overlooked study has major implications for Abbotsford's billion-dollar Sumas Prairie plan

The Fraser River poses a huge flood risk to many communities. Just not, historically, in winter.

For that reason, scientists and governments have invested relatively little time and energy to learn about how the river behaves during its low-flow season—and how that behaviour is changing.

The 2021 disaster, however, demonstrated that even when the Fraser doesn’t flood in winter, its behaviour can still have huge and expensive implications for Sumas Prairie.

Thank goodness, then, for Siraj Ul Islam and three other scientists. Four years ago, the quartet published a study that would turn out to have major implications for the future of flood management in the Fraser Valley—and for Abbotsford’s desire to build an $870 million pump station.

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