The PFRA project of 1947-48 made massive physical changes to the Pemberton Valley though it may be hard to imagine the scale of this project at the time. This year is also the 70th anniversary of the Pemberton Valley Dyking District and it was formed as a result of the drainage and dyking of the valley.
5. Committee was formed after the 1940 Flood
Original Committee Members included: Bob
Taylor, Joe Taillefer and Harold Wyatt-Purden
Bob Taylor and Ernest
Cooper 1940 Joe Taillefer 1957 Harold Wyatt-Purden
6. Main purposes was to prepare a brief to the
Post-War Rehabilitation Council.
Brief called for the dyking and straightening of
Lillooet R., Ryan and Miller Creeks and the
lowering of Lillooet Lake.
7. What was the Act for?
Was approved on April 17th 1935 after 8 years of falling grain prices,
unrelenting drought, severe wind erosion and resulting wide scale
abandonment of farms in the driest southern areas of the prairies.
How did it help Pemberton?
In 1937 the PFRA Act was amended to add land utilization and land
settlement. Projects could include irrigation or de-watering.
8. The Federal government agreed to carry out
the reclamation project.
What were some of the major physical
changes?
Lillooet R. cuts
The dykes
The canals and ditches
The lowering of the lake
17. The Dyking District was formed in 1947 from
the Drainage and Reclamation Committee and
Bob Taylor and H Wyatt-Purden were some of
the first trustees.
What was the purpose? Under the Tri-Partite
Agreement signed in 1948 the Federal
government did construction, province
provided ROW’s and access roads and the
committee accepted responsibility for general
maintenance to be funded through taxation.
18. What were some of the early issues?
The flood events of 1948-49 created concern as the
project wasn’t entirely completed and there were
weak points in the system.
What were some of the early successes?
Over the first decade the water level of the Lillooet
R. gradually dropped and some farmer’s had to start
irrigating – drying out became more of a problem
than flooding.
A rush of new settlers arrived to settle the reclaimed
farm lands.
23. The most
significant events
result from heavy
rains and freezing
levels well above
the mountain
peaks. The October
8, 1984 and October
18, 2003 floods
were examples of
rain on snow
events. The
instantaneous peak
flows on the
Lillooet River were
recorded at 1310
cum/s and 1490
cum/s respectively
