With the snap of a steel latch, Diane Demeerleer's gate swings open to the east bank of the Green River. The smell of fall leaves fill the air and thickets of evergreens pop against the gray sky as she looks toward the winding river.
Demeerleer loves her waterfront condo in Kent.
"I've always wanted to live here," she said.
But she is wary of the landscape, too. The levees separating her home from the river aren't strong enough to prevent a major flood, and she is unsure how safe her property is.
"There isn't much holding the river in," Demeerleer said. "It's just a bunch of soil."
In Southeast King County, thousands of homes and businesses soon could be located within federally designated floodplains because of weak levees on the Green River.
Levees repairs will be costly and complicated, requiring a balance of strong design and environmental and political sensitivity at a cost taxpayers can swallow.
The Metropolitan King County Council approved a property-tax increase last month that would direct about $10.6 million a year to repair the Green River levees. Estimates to repair the river's extensive levee system have ranged anywhere from $264 million to $3.96 billion.
Just figuring out a solution could take years, said Mike Mactutis, Kent's environmental engineering manager.
But making the necessary changes to bring the levees up to Army Corps of Engineers standards could take 20 years, county officials say.
The levees along the Green River stretch for more than 25 miles, said Andy Levesque, King County's senior engineer who works in the River and Floodplain Management Unit. Many are too steep and dilapidated to be certified safe by the Corps of Engineers.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has said the levees must be repaired or thousands of property owners could face high flood-insurance premiums and building restrictions that essentially would mean a building ban.
In September, preliminary maps released by FEMA more than doubled the number of Southeast King County properties within the Green River's floodplain.
Now city and county leaders say it's when, not if, the levees will be fixed.
Raising awareness
Visible cracks along the Green River Trail, which sits atop several of the river's levees, are nothing new. But repairs have been mere bandages and the levees are due for a major overhaul, local officials say.
King County partnered with the Corps of Engineers in 2006 to repair the Briscoe Meander Levee in the heart of the Kent's manufacturing area. The levee was damaged after heavy rains a few years ago.
Recent attention from FEMA's national mapping program has only heightened awareness of levees.
"It's a really big deal," said Alex Pietsch, head of Renton's economic development. "It's a hard issue to explain. The levees have significant impacts, and nobody has talked about it yet."
In the mid 1800s, the valley surrounding the river flooded regularly. In the late 19th century, farmers built the levees out of soil.
But the river wasn't controlled until the 1960s, when Howard Hanson Dam was built near Flaming Geyser State Park. This helped transform Renton, Kent and Auburn from rural farming communities to manufacturing hubs.
King County added a continuous levy system in the '60s to help keep cities from flooding, but the project was never certified by the Corps of Engineers.
Some flooding is expected in valley farmlands, county engineers say, but several floods in the past two decades have revealed deficiencies in the river's levee system, Levesque said.
Valley cities, the county and the federal government have helped pay for minor repairs, but for FEMA, not having the Corps of Engineers' stamp of approval on a levee is equivalent to not having a levee at all, said Ryan Ike, a FEMA floodplain specialist.
In its analysis of the Green River floodplain, FEMA assumed that the river's levees would fail in the event of a 100- or 500-year flood.
"It's not a perfect system," Ike said Nov. 1 at a FEMA meeting in Kent. "But this is what we do to certify standards. It's not a popular process, but this is life and safety we're talking about here."
Officials from King County, Auburn, Kent and Renton have said it is unfair to assume the levees would fail during such a flood, and are appealing FEMA's findings.
Prioritizing projects
Many of the Green River's levees are steep compared with more modern ones, which slope gradually or are reinforced with plants. To meet Corps of Engineers standards, the Green River levees likely would be widened or plants would be added to make them stronger.
County officials say they will tackle "top-priority" projects first. The Corps of Engineers will work with the county on the least-stable levees — the Tukwila 205 Levee, the Horseshoe Bend Levee in Kent and the Dykstra and Galli's levees in Auburn — as early as next summer.
Other upgrades will be prioritized based on the urgency of the repairs needed. The county is also working with an outside consultant to come up with a plan that will bring the river's entire levee system to federal standards, Levesque said.
So-called "top-priority" projects could take a decade to complete, Levesque said, and bringing the entire levee system up to federal standards could take 20 years.
"Levees are like a chain," Levesque said. "Until you've fixed all the links in the chain, it's not fixed."
Levesque said the county is working with the Corps of Engineers so segments of the levee will meet federal standards as the improvement project expands over the coming years.
Generally speaking, Levesque said, it costs $1,000 to $15,000 to repair a 1-foot stretch of levee, Levesque said. Federal money likely will be needed to offset the costs.
Until this year, Kent, Renton, Auburn and Tukwila had to pay for repairs, but they didn't have enough money, so many weren't made. But under a new King County Flood Control Zone District formed in April, city leaders say repairs will be better funded and managed.
Addressing concerns
Any plans to improve the levees will have to address environmental concerns. Southeast King County cities, the county, the state and local tribes have worked to protect bull trout, steelhead and chinook salmon in the river.
Logs have been embedded in the edge of the riverbanks, and vegetation has been planted along the river's levees to improve salmon habitat. But the Corps of Engineers' levee standards are strict, and city leaders say they are unsure how this would effect efforts to save salmon.
"[We are] caught in the middle between the Endangered Species Act and the levee-maintenance standards," Mactutis said.
King County officials said levee repairs could easily be coupled with restoration and improvement projects that could help salmon and wildlife ecosystems.
Levee work will be completed with help from the state Department of Ecology, Levesque said.
The goal is to repair the levees and bring salmon-habitat standards to a higher level, Levesque said.
Looking ahead
Now when Demeerleer steps outside each morning, she sees a soil-and-rock buffer that separates millions of gallons of murky water from billions of dollars of property.
In the weeks since learning that the levee in her backyard needs to be fixed, Demeerleer has e-mailed city and county officials and attended a community meeting hosted by FEMA. She also has spoken with countless neighbors.
Many unanswered questions remain, but Demeerleer, 59, is sure of one thing: She wants to live by the river.
"This is the home I plan to retire in," she said.
A costly undertaking
Green River levees are among the highest priority for repairs of any river in King County, officials say. Here is an analysis of what it could cost to fix them:
Estimated cost to repair 1 foot of a levee: $1,000 to $15,000
Estimated length of levees in need of repair: 50 miles
Potential cost to repair levees: $264 million to $3.96 billion
Source: King County River and Floodplain Management Unit
Do you live in a floodplain? To find out whether your property is included in FEMA's new maps, contact your city's public-works department; if you live in an unincorporated area, contact King County's Water and Land Resources Division at 206-296-6519.
With the snap of a steel latch, Diane Demeerleer's gate swings open to the east bank of the Green River. The smell of fall leaves fill the air and thickets of evergreens pop against the gray sky as she looks toward the winding river.