For the Reporter

The community is invited to a May 3 open house at 6:30 p.m. at the Pacific City Gymnasium, 305 Milwaukee Blvd. S., to learn more about the Countyline Levee Setback Project on the White River, including flood protection goals and environmental benefits, schedule, final design, construction information, and what to expect in changes to river conditions.

The largest such project undertaken in the nine-year history of the King County Flood Control District, the project is the first of two projects aimed at significantly reducing flood risks and the potential for flood damages to Pacific residents.

“I am pleased to see that the Countyline project is moving forward,” said Flood Control District Supervisor Pete von Reichbauer. “This project will help ensure the safety of numerous residences near the White River by dramatically reducing their flood risk for years to come. I look forward to the project’s completion in 2017.”

The complex project is a combination of property acquisitions, levee removal, setback levee construction and floodplain restoration within the Countyline reach of the lower White River in the cities of Pacific and Sumner.

The work will provide significant flood-risk reduction benefits for more than 200 nearby homes and businesses by building a new setback levee, removing the existing levee to reconnect the river with 121 acres of off-channel habitat where floodwaters can safely fan out during high flows.

The project design accounts for the ongoing sediment deposition in this stretch of the White River, whose glacial source on Mount Rainier results in sand, gravel and rock all slowly moving downstream.

Initiation of construction of the Countyline Levee Setback project will start in late May of this year, and is expected to finish in late fall of 2017, with major construction occurring during the two summer seasons.

The project is unique in its technical complexity, diverse funding partnerships, multi-jurisdictional settings and multi-agency involvement. Project managers have leveraged $6.1 million in funding to benefit habitat recovery in addition to the $12.2 million funding provided by the King County Flood Control District.

The total project cost is estimated at $18.3 million with a number of funding sources:

• $12.2 million – King County Flood Control District;

• $4.7 million – Thea Foss Waterway Natural Resource Damage Assessment Settlement involving numerous settling parties and the following natural resource trustees: NOAA, USFWS, the Washington State Department of Ecology, the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe;

• $823,000 – State Salmon Recovery Funding Board grant; and

• $500,000 – Pierce County funding.

For more information, visit the project webpage.