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Entrance to Howard Hanson Dam in 2009; from this earlier blog post
Howard Hanson Dam is central to preventing Green River flooding, and it’s been in the news in the past few days. Seventeen years ago the dam needed major updates in order to store it’s full design capacity of water. Public officials from potential flood areas including Renton participated in helping the Army Corps of engineers acquire the necessary funding to make permanent repairs and install temporary levee extensions (walls of sandbags on top of existing levees) in case we experienced a bad flood while completing the repairs.
The concern was not with the dam itself, but rather the soil near the dam. The dam is located in a valley that was narrowed by a landslide 10,000 years ago. This ancient landslide was beginning to seep water, and the Army Corps of engineers ultimately injected concrete into this landslide zone to stop the water from forming streams that ultimately could have grown into a washout. The concerns subsided in spring of 2010 as repairs were completed.
This blog post from 2009 documents a visit by public officials to this site where we got a personal view of the problem near the dam. Councilmember Terri Briere and I attended and represented Renton.
Public officials from Renton, Kent, Auburn and King County inspect the Howard Hanson dam in 2009; see this blog post for more photos
Renton Councilmember Terri Briere inspecting the Howard Hanson dam in 2009; see this blog post for more photos
To see all the posts I’ve published concerning Howard Hanson Dam, please click here.
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