Introduction
The Puyallup River General Investigation seeks to identify flood issues on the Puyallup, Carbon and White Rivers.
Recently, the levee system that is along these rivers in parts of Puyallup and Tacoma has been decertified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Puyallup River has also experienced increasingly severe flooding with major impacts to the surrounding infrastructure upstream of its levee system. Pierce County has provided a Letter of Intent to sponsor a Flood Risk Management Feasibility Study that addresses potential flooding issues.
Status
A reconnaissance report was completed in 2002 at the request of Pierce County. The scope of the study included flood damage reduction and ecosystem restoration throughout the Puyallup/White River basins. The study was then called White River Flood Control and Ecosystem Restoration, WA.
Pierce County and King County declined to sign a Feasibility Cost Sharing Agreement (FCSA) with the US Army Corps of Engineers in 2002. In 2008, Congress provided funds for the reconnaissance study. The reconnaissance phase has been reinitiated with renewed interest from Pierce County for the decertified levees in the lower Puyallup River. The reconnaissance report was completed in FY09. A Letter of Intent to proceed into the feasibility phase was received by the Corps from Pierce County in the end of September 2009. The Letter expanded the scope to also include the Carbon and White Rivers. The reconnaissance report was approved in May 2010 and the Project Management Plan was completed in June of 2010. The new FCSA was signed in September 2010 and the Feasibility Study is currently underway. At present, the Corps' Project Delivery Team is completing an "existing conditions" analysis and developing a preliminary array of measures to address flood risk management in the study area.