New Seattle commander of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to oversee Hanson Dam repairs along Green River

A new commander of the Seattle District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will give future updates about repairs to the Howard Hanson Dam and potential Green River flooding.

Col. Bruce A. Estok replaced Col. Anthony Wright last week as the new commander. Wright, who has retired, handled press conferences and kept political leaders from Kent, Tukwila, Auburn, Renton and King County informed about repairs at the dam after a storm in January 2009 damaged an abutment next to the dam.

“Seattle District Commanders are rotated out every two to three years,” said Patricia Graesser, spokeswoman for the Seattle district of the corps, in an email. “Colonel Wright was in command for a three-year term, and now he has retired and been replaced with Colonel Bruce Estok. Colonel Wright’s future plans aren’t solidified yet.”

Wright took over command of the Seattle district just several months before heavy rainfall damaged an abutment next to the dam in 2009. He has overseen a $44 million repair project to get the dam back to its original operation capacity and help protect cities along the Green River from flooding.

The corps is scheduled to give another update in September about the repairs and whether the dam can operate this winter as it did prior to the damage.

“We will evaluate the testing and make a determination to what level we will operate it,” Wright said at a May 16 stakeholders meeting at corps headquarters in Seattle. “It is not fixed yet because we don’t know whether our fix worked.”

Crews installed additional drains and wells at the dam. But until engineers complete testing this summer after the reservoir pool behind the dam reaches full capacity, they won’t know how well the repairs worked to protect the cities.

Estok will oversee military construction in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon, according to a corps media release. He also manages an extensive civil works engineering and construction mission in Washington, Idaho and Montana. His programs also include Historic Preservation of Historic Structures, and Hazardous, Toxic and Radioactive Waste cleanup. The Seattle district manages $500 million worth of work annually with more than 900 employees.

Estok, who is married with two children, spent the past year as a National Security Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass.

Estok also served from 2008 to 2010 as Engineer Plans and Operations Chief for U.S. Army Pacific in Hawaii; in 2006 to 2008 as Commander and District Engineer for the Corps of Engineers Albuquerque District and from 2004 to 2006 as Construction Division Chief, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He previously held several other positions.

Prior to joining the corps, Estok earned a bachelor of science in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Military Academy in 1989, and a civil engineering master of science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1998. He attended Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama and received a master of military arts and science in 2002.

He is a graduate of the Engineer Officer Basic Course at Fort Belvoir, Va., the Infantry Officer Advanced Course at Fort Benning, Ga., and is a professional engineer licensed by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Estok’s military awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal (fifth Oak Leaf Cluster), the Army Commendation Medal (fifth Oak Leaf Cluster), the Army Achievement Medal (first Oak Leaf Cluster), the Meritorious Unit Commendation Medal, the Army Superior Unit Award, the Air Assault and Master Parachutist Badges, the Ranger Tab, the Combat Action Badge, and service awards from Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom.