April 16, 2007
Sims' plan to repair levees moves forward with creation of countywide flood district
Executive Ron Sims' plan to protect lives, property and a significant portion of King County's economic infrastructure took a major step forward today when the Metropolitan King County Council voted unanimously to form a new countywide flood control zone district.
"Adopting the flood plan in January and establishing the countywide flood control zone district today are the first two steps toward protecting residents, businesses and our regional economic prosperity," Sims said. "As we learned from Hurricane Katrina, the impacts of flooding are regional and extend far beyond the floodplain itself.
"The third and final step to fortify and maintain our levees will be the approval of funding later this fall," he said.
The ordinance to create the countywide flood control zone district also creates a countywide advisory committee to make recommendations on funding and project priorities. The advisory committee is scheduled to begin its work in May and complete its recommendations by the end of August.
"I want to applaud the legislation's prime sponsor, Councilmember Jane Hague; co-sponsor, Councilmember Larry Phillips; and the entire County Council for their leadership on this critical public safety issue," Sims said.
King County's flood protection system includes more than 119 miles of levees that protect lives and more than $7 billion in economic infrastructure in the county's 25,000 acres of floodplain.
Massive flooding in November 2006 caused an estimated $33 million in new damage to the county's flood protection facilities – with damage to 25,000 linear feet of those facilities. The county had already identified $335 million in critical flood protection needs in the 2006 Flood Hazard Management Plan, which was unanimously adopted by the Metropolitan King County Council this past January.
Flooding is expected to worsen throughout the Pacific Northwest, according to a recently released report from members of the University of Washington's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Climate Change Technical Subcommittee. Wetter winters with more frequent periods of heavy rain throughout western Washington are anticipated.
"Warmer, wetter winters will result in higher river flows over longer periods of time, which could damage the levees and other structures that we rely upon to protect our citizens, their property, and the prosperity of our entire region," Sims said. "We now have a proactive plan in place to strengthen that flood-protection system."
Adopting the flood hazard management plan provides policies and projects for managing King County's rivers and floodplains for the next decade. The plan also gives King County the highest ranked county for flood protection programs in the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Flood Insurance Program. With the new plan in place, residents of unincorporated King County qualify for a 40 percent discount on their flood insurance premiums.