Exceptionally heavy rain on 17 November in Pemberton, 152km north of Vancouver on the former British Columbia railway (BCR), flooded an estimated 160 acres of land adjacent to properties along Prospect Street and Collins Road. The plain is bordered on one side by a hill where Pemberton’s Benchlands neighbourhood is located and on the other by a Canadian National (CN) line that runs on top of a dyke.

On its two remaining sides are approximately 20 to 30 farm properties with addresses on Prospect Street and Collins Road. One of them belongs to Bob Menzel, a rancher whose grazing areas were so badly flooded that a horse was drowned.

On the morning of 17 November, horses were seen up to their knees in water and the grazing areas at Menzel’s property were completely submerged, with fence posts treading water above the surface. The problem, according to some local residents, is that the CN dyke doesn’t allow proper drainage.  Three culverts feed water out and into an arm of Pemberton Creek. The dyke and culverts were provided in the late 1970s by BCR, to replace a timber trestle bridge that collapsed in a fire.

Also at issue are beavers that have moved into the area and have been observed floating big pieces of wood into the drains and plugging them. CN Rail installed grates known as “beaver deceivers,” but the flooding problem persists. Spokeswoman Kelli Svendsen says the dyke is less of a cause for flooding than residents make out. “BC Rail didn’t create the floodplain,” she says, “so this issue comes up every few years when there’s a big rainfall”.

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