SEATTLE - Sen. Patty Murray announced Thursday that Washington state will get $44 million in federal money to fix the badly weakened Howard Hanson Dam.
Damage was found to an abutment in the dam after record rains in January 2009. Since then, the Army Corps of Engineers has said it could not hold back as much water for fear the entire dam may fail. That has dramatically increased the risk of major flooding along the Green River. The Corps has been working to fix the problem.
Murray, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, says she had included money for the repairs in a supplemental appropriations bill. The money will be used to lengthen and deepen a curtain of grout that was installed last year to keep water from seeping through.
Since the dam was built some 40 years ago, there has been a population and business boom in the valley, particularly in the cities of Auburn, Kent, Renton and Tukwila. Some 170,000 people live in the valley. The region holds the fifth-largest industrial park in the nation, Boeing's Kent space center and a regional coffee roasting plant for Starbucks.
Murray says the economic effects of a flood in the valley would be devastating. Gov. Chris Gregoire and other Washington business and political leaders went to Washington, D.C., last week to push for the money.
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