The Kent City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved spending another $1.5 million to try to protect the city from flooding this winter along the Green River.
That brings the total of Kent’s flood-fighting fund to $3 million.
Tim LaPorte, city interim public works director, made the request to the Council to pay for flood-protection structures, materials and equipment as well as contracts with companies to place sandbags along the levees.
“Our goal is to prevent the overtopping of the levees,” LaPorte said to the Council. “We are going to do everything in our power to prevent that.”
The Council initially okayed spending $1.5 million July 7 toward flood-fighting costs, in response to fears about flood control this winter on the Green River.
Water leaking through a damaged abutment adjacent to the Howard Hanson Dam has yet to be resolved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency in charge of the flood-control facility. That leak, and the lessened increases the risk of flooding this winter in the Green River Valley and the cities of Kent, Auburn, Renton and Tukwila.
Corps officials expect to finish construction of a grout curtain along the abutment by Nov. 1, but the $8.7 million temporary fix still will not allow as much water as normal to be stored in the Eagle Gorge Reservoir behind the dam. Corps officials estimate it will take three to five years to construct a concrete cutoff wall as a permanent fix.
The federal government built the rock-and earth-fill Hanson dam in 1961 to control major flooding in the Green River Valley.
Kent has hired two contractors to start placing 20,000 giant sandbags this week along 12 miles of levees that run through Kent. City crews continue to work day and night to fill the sandbags at a West Hill site near South 231st Way. Crews had filled 2,250 bags the first three days.
“We expect it to be completed by Nov. 1,” LaPorte said, about placing the sandbags in the middle of the Green River Trail, which sits atop the levees. City officials will close the trail until early November as crews place the 3-foot-square sandbags that weigh nearly 3,500 pounds each. The bags will increase the height of the levees by up to 3 feet and be able to handle river flows as fast as 13,900 cubic feet per second.
“Placing 20,000 bags on 12 miles of levees is very ambitious,” LaPorte said.
The Army Corps gave $1.03 million worth of empty giant and small sandbags to the city as part of $3.4 million of assistance to help the state, King County and the cities of Kent, Auburn, Renton and Tukwila prepare for flooding. The Corps released the funds in response to a state request to provide flood fighting assistance and materials to augment state and local efforts.
There are no plans at this time for the Corps to give more money to Kent or other cities, said Casondra Brewster, public affairs specialist for the Corps in Seattle.
“They (Corps officials) will be reassessing that after they get the sandbags in place to see if more prevention measures might be needed,” Brewster said in a phone interview Wednesday. “But there is nothing in the works now.”
Brewster said the state, county and cities could request additional funds similar to what officials did last month.
“It would likely follow the same process,” Brewster said.
Kent city officials are using $3 million in funds from the city storm drainage improvement projects bond sale to pay for the flood project.
“We will not abandon (storm drainage) projects on the East Hill and West Hill,” LaPorte said about projects that are part of the city Drainage Master Plan.
LaPorte said the city expects to eventually be reimbursed through federal, state and King County Flood Control District funds to cover the $3 million it has committed of its own funds toward flood protection.
Contractors will wrap the giant sandbags in black plastic to help protect the bags from deteriorating due to ultraviolet rays. The city will pay
for the contractors to place the giant sandbags as well as the sand, machines and equipment to fill the bags and the plastic to wrap the bags.
“I would like to thank the public works department for taking the initiative when we approved $1.5 million more than four weeks ago,” Councilman Ron Harmon said at the meeting. “Without that money, we would not be able to fill the sandbags. Now we need more money to finish the project and protect citizens and property.”
The problems with water storage behind the dam started when a 10-foot-wide depression formed on the embankment next to the dam after heavy rain in early January. The dam is about 25 miles east of Kent.
John Hodgson, city chief administrative officer, said at the meeting that the city employees involved in trying to protect the city from flooding should be thanked for their efforts.
“The community needs to know that the staff is taking this on and saying, ‘We’re going to win,'” Hodgson said.
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