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Recent reports in Canadian newspapers that Whatcom County is creating a channel to divert Nooksack River floodwaters away from U.S. cities and into British Columbia are false and misleading, County Executive Satpal Sidhu said.

In a strongly-worded statement Monday, Jan. 31, Sidhu said that the news articles contain “significant inaccuracies” that have caused concern among residents of flood-prone areas in Canadian communities north of Sumas. “Whatcom County is not constructing or creating any new flood channel,” SIdhu said in his statement, which was emailed to The Bellingham Herald and posted to the county’s social media sites.

Nooksack River floodwaters flow into Sumas and neighboring Abbotsford and the dry lake of Sumas Prairie because those areas lie at a lower elevation.

But there are no plans to “send” floodwater to British Columbia intentionally, Sidhu said. “The Nooksack River naturally overflows its banks during high flow events near the town of Everson, and this water flows downhill through an old river valley north into the town of Sumas and across the border into Canada,” Sidhu said.