People have knocked holes in it, walked on it in high heels, torched it, cut it,

Volunteer wall-walkers who monitor the recently erected flood barriers along the levees of the Green River in Auburn found the remains of a fire that had burned through the thick black protective plastic to the sandbags, all the way down to the ground.

They also discovered that somebody had pulled back a 20-foot section of the plastic.

City officials say that when vandals attack that protective wrap, they risk the lives of people who have paid for the wall and are counting on it for protection should the river flood.

“People’s lives are at stake, not to mention property,” Sarah Miller, emergency preparedness manager for the City of Auburn, said of the flood barriers between 8th Street Northeast and 277th Street.

The sandbags are wrapped in special plastic to prolong their lives, as the bag material otherwise breaks down after 1,200 hours or 50 days exposure to ultra-violet rays. They must last at least five years, giving the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers time to effect permanent repairs at the compromised Howard Hanson Dam 36 miles upstream that will return it to its full capacity as a flood protection dam.

“Luckily, the rolled-back plastic was easy to fix — they didn’t damage it, they just exposed the bags, which is the whole point we are trying to avoid,” Miller said. “We don’t want to expose the bags to sunlight. The problem is that if they deteriorate and we don’t know they have deteriorated, we might find out only when the water rises and knocks one out. We don’t want that to happen.”

While there is some slack in the plastic, and it can be readjusted to a certain point, given enough damage it would have to be re-layed and redone at great expense. It must be sealed to be effective.

“… The most important thing to us is lives,” Miller said. “Those protective measures are there to provide protection should we get heavy rainfall in the next five to seven years.”

Vandals have done most of their mischief on the riverbanks adjacent to Brannan Park. People have even been seen crawling over the barriers to go fishing. Miller said that even being on the sandbags is a crime.

“You are not allowed to be on the sandbags, period, not to crawl over them to go fishing, not for any reason are you to be on the sandbags,” Miller said.

The City hasn’t caught anybody in the act yet, but the King County Prosecutor has said he will consider all cases the City forward for felony prosecution. Miller said the homeowners along the river have done a good job policing the wall.

“Several people have found things. We’ve had citizens report things, we’ve had volunteers find things, we had city staff find things while they were out doing training. We were finding damage before they were even done building it. They’d finish one section and they’d move on, and we’d find damage on the section they had just finished,” Miller said.

Miller urged residents to scout for damage on the levees, but she cautioned that the City doesn’t need people taking matters into their own hands.

“We don’t need vigilantes, just vigilance. If they see something, they need to call and report it. They can call 911 or call our public works department or call this office so we can get somebody out there to look at it, assess it and get it fixed,” Miller said.

Anybody who’s found tampering with the sandbags in any way, be it standing on them or actually physically harming them, is subject to arrest and prosecution.

Residents should call 253-931-4008 or 253-288-3138 to inform the City of any concerns they might have, or if seepage is observed through the levee so patrols can be aware of them for observation.

“This is not a game,” Miller said.”These knuckleheads could be responsible for someone’s death if they damage the bags and there’s a failure.”