Hatzic Island is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

located in the centre of

Hatzic Lake Hatzic Lake is an oxbow lake north of and draining into the Fraser River, immediately south of Hatzic Valley, and east of the benchland neighbourhood of Hatzic. Neilson Regional Park and the district of Mission is on the immediate west shore of ...

, an

oxbow lake An oxbow lake is a U-shaped lake or pool that forms when a wide meander of a river is cut off, creating a free-standing body of water. In South Texas, oxbows left by the Rio Grande are called '' resacas''. In Australia, oxbow lakes are call ...

formation north of the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

, on the east side of Mission,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Geography

Approximately 2.6 km in length from North to South and just over 600m wide at its widest point, the island is a pointed oval shape, located just above sea level. The island and its immediate neighbouring communities is accessed exclusively via Shook Street from BC Highway 7, which crosses the southern end of Hatzic Lake, alongside the mainline of the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

. The island is unincoporporated, forming part of Fraser Valley Regional District Electoral Area "G". Hatzic Island is a relatively densely populated residential and recreational community. It consists of houses, some smaller farms, privately run campgrounds, mobile home parks and trailer parks, the largest trailer park being the Everglades resort, consisting of nearly four hundred sites on thirty acres on the southeast part of Hatzic Island. Apart from properties on the island itself, there is a residential community immediately adjacent to Hatzic Lake's southwestern shore off Moore Avenue. The nearest schools are in

Hatzic Hatzic is a historic community in the Central Fraser Valley region of the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada, located on the east side of the District of Mission and including areas beyond the municipal boundary to the east and northeas ...

and Dewdney, British Columbia as there are no schools on the island.

Flooding

Because of Hatzic Island's low elevation it is potentially vulnerable to

rising sea levels Rising may refer to: * Rising, a stage in baking - see Proofing (baking technique) *Elevation * Short for Uprising, a rebellion Film and TV * "Rising" (''Stargate Atlantis''), the series premiere of the science fiction television program ''Starga ...

and flooding of the Fraser. Hazards from flooding caused by the annual spring freshet of the Fraser River and winter rainfall outflow from Hatzic Valley have generally been ameliorated by dykes, gates and pump stations which empty Hatzic Lake via its lower slough into the Fraser River. The most serious recorded flooding by the Fraser River of Hatzic Island was the "Great Flood" of 1948 which, further to breaches of the dykes, flooded over 13,000 acres of land in lowland areas adjacent to the Fraser River, extending north over twelve square miles of Hatzic Prairie. One year after the 1948 floods a replacement pumping station was built, with capacity of 8CM (cubic meters) per second. Although this was intended to be temporary, new pumps were not built until 2014, when three new pumps with combined pumping capacity of 14CM/s were fitted. The older pumps are still available as backups. The pumps are powered by electricity, funded by the Dewdney Area Improvement District and their taxpayers, and because of newer gate design and floating pump house construction offer a more fish-friendly and seismically stable solution. Further to studies on flooding in the Lower Mainland the

Fraser Basin Council The Fraser Basin Council is a charitable non-profit organization devoted to advancing sustainability in the Fraser Basin and across BC. The mandate of the organization is, "To advance sustainability in British Columbia, with a core focus on the ...

has embarked on authoring a multi-phase Lower Mainland Flood Management Strategy (LMFMS), the first phase of which completed in 2016, being focussed on "BC Lower Mainland flood scenarios, a regional assessment of flood vulnerabilities and a review of flood protection works and practices in the region." In commenting on the maps published under Phase 1 of the LMFMS, The Hope Standard observed that "the deepest floodwaters would swamp the north and east of Hatzic Lake, in and around Dewdney and Deroche on the north side of the Fraser River, and the Glen Valley in northwest Abbotsford and northeast Langley, where many areas could see flood waters rise three metres or more above ground." The second phase of the LMFMS program consists of multiple projects, and has the purpose of "developing a long-term strategy", having an expected completion date of late 2020/ early 2021.

References

* Unincorporated settlements in British Columbia Islands of British Columbia Populated places in the Fraser Valley Regional District {{BritishColumbiaCoast-geo-stub

Geography

Flooding

See also

References