Environment
(2009-11-06)
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Temporary repairs are making a difference at Howard Hanson Dam, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The risk of flooding on the Green River is now lower than it was a month ago--but still much higher than in the past.
This is the update everyone in the Green River Valley has been waiting for. After 5 months of construction alongside the Howard Hanson Dam, and pumping nearly 500,000 gallons of cement-like grout into the soil, there's some good news: The so-called "grout curtain" appears to work, says Colonel Anthony Wright of the Army Corps.
His staff has been testing their temporary fix. It doesn't stop water from seeping around the dam, but it slows it down enough to allow the reservoir to hold more water. Wright says the likelihood of a flood that would over-top levees in Auburn, Kent, Renton and Tukwila has gone from a 1-in-4 chance to 1-in-25. If you include the sandbags and other material piled on the levees, the risk of overtopping the levees is 1-in-33.
"What I don't want to have is victory dances, and people thinking it's not a big deal any more," says Wright. "They need to stay prepared."
If a major set of pineapple-express storms comes, like last January, then the river could still overwhelm the levees.
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