2014/07/16 Council Agenda Packet

area will face major impacts. Damage to structures, power outages to the immediate and surrounding areas, sewer system back-ups, water supply disruption and the closure of major transportation facilities, including State Route167 and Interstate 5, are some of the likely impacts (Bissonnette 2009). The area and the region will face economic impacts as well as physical impacts. The Green River Valley is the West Coast's second-largest manufacturing and distribution center and has $46 million of economic activity per day (2006) (Gregg 9/18/09). As a result of the threat of flooding, businesses in the affected area have not been able to purchase private flood insurance and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood insurance coverage is not sufficient for many industrial companies' assets (Gregg 9/18/09). Additionally, the Kent Valley has seen higher than usual industrial usage vacancy rates even with a lowered threat of flooding (PSBJ 12/23/09). King County faces considerable costs to relocate or protect major facilities, including the District Court, Animal Shelter, Regional Justice Center, King County Elections office, and several Public Health Clinics (Bissonnette 2009). Howard Hanson Dam: Coordination and Planning Efforts Many agencies joined forces to plan for the potential flooding of the Green River Valley. The agencies involved included the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Weather Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, Washington State Emergency Management, the Washington State Department of Transportation, King County Flood Services and Emergency Management, King County and Seattle Public Health agencies, the City of Auburn, the City of Kent, the City of Renton, the City of Seattle, and the City of Tukwila. Planning and coordination activities included preparing for inundation scenarios, the completion of levee repairs, communication among jurisdictions, as well as the protection or relocation of major government buildings in the area. King County, in coordination with Puget Sound Energy, the Red Cross and others, also launched a public awareness campaign for residents and business owners to prepare for the flood including flood planning resources, evacuation routes, free sandbags and free pesticide collection. Each of the cities at risk also reached out to their residents and business owners with emergency preparation and evacuation information. In addition, King County collaborated with other agencies to create a new four phase flood alert system that provides real- time messages to subscribers. Other Adaptation Planning Efforts In addition to the work being conducted by Ecology as mentioned previously in this report, several jurisdictions in the central Puget Sound region are researching and/or pursuing policy related to climate change adaptation. King County is probably the most active in this area, and one example of their work is the 2008 report "Vulnerability of Major Wastewater Facilities to Flooding from Sea -Level Rise." Specific to transportation, there is also an eight - county Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Planning Project working on the development of a transportation recovery plan to identify disruptions in the transportation network and methods to prioritize rerouting needs in the event of a catastrophic disaster. Climate change is also beginning to be addressed in the evaluation of major transportation projects, both in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions but also in terms of adaptation. Examples of projects incorporating consideration of a changing climate in their planning work include the Columbia River Crossing project on the border between Oregon and Washington, which included considerations related to the design of the bridge should the high water levels of the Columbia River rise in the future. The 1-90 Snoqualmie Pass East project considered increased flow rates in streams and designed bridges to accommodate higher flows. Another example is the Tolt Bridge in King County, which was designed to withstand high flows and major flooding of the Snoqualmie River. SECTION 6: ADAPTATION PLANNING FOR TRANSPORTATION — FUTURE WORK This section of the paper briefly discusses the possibilities for incorporating adaptation to climate change in the long-range transportation planning process. This is an emerging area of study, and as such this paper does not attempt to provide definitive guidance at this time on how adaptation should be incorporated into either long-range transportation planning or in the design of individual projects. However, a discussion of some general categories of potential strategies and planning approaches to address the issue is included, as well as potential future research and collaboration needs. L-20 Appendix L: Climate Change Background