Drafter
7/21/2009
Title
A MOTION requesting the governor of the state of Washington to authorize the director of the Washington state Emergency Management Division to assume the overall coordination of local emergency response efforts, in the event of catastrophic flooding in the Green River valley.
Body
WHEREAS, prior to the construction of the Howard Hanson Dam in 1961, the floodwaters of the Green river would spread out almost unimpeded across the Green River valley, and
WHEREAS, because major flooding has been reduced, the valley is now home to tens of thousands of residents, major employers such as Boeing and Starbucks, and the region's largest warehouse and distribution operations, and
WHEREAS, an independent study titled Economic Connections Between the King County Floodplains and the Greater King County Economy prepared by ECONorthwest, Inc. states that roughly six percent, or sixty-five thousand, of the county's jobs are located within the floodplains, with and annual wage and salary income of three billion seven hundred million dollars and that property in King County's floodplains is valued at more than seven billion dollars, and
WHEREAS, after the January 2009 floods, the United States Army Corps of Engineers ("the Corps") discovered depressions in the embankment adjacent to the dam and temporarily restricted its water-holding capacity, and
WHEREAS, recent monitoring and tests have shown several "anomalies" suggesting a level of seepage and internal erosion through the abutment that had not been anticipated by the Corps, resulting immediate steps to lower water levels behind the dam even more, and
WHEREAS, while the Corps is undertaking immediate steps, which were a grout "curtain" in the embankment, to reduce the level of risk, it has acknowledge that a permanent solution would be several years away and could cost upwards to several hundred million dollars, and
WHEREAS, a flood event that would inundate the Green River valley ...

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