On Thursday, August 20 the Board of County Commissioners made a formal commitment to participate in the Levee Ready Columbia project. The collaboration between Multnomah County, the City of Portland, Metro, the Port of Portland, local organizations, and state and federal agencies will focus on ensuring that levees along the Columbia River in Multnomah County are in good condition and federally-certified for flood protection.
A levee is a long ridge of earthen material or concrete along a river designed to protect land from floods. Recent changes in federal certification requirements are driving the effort to study and strengthen the levees so they can be certified and property owners can maintain their flood insurance.
The county’s Department of Community Services is dedicating funds to hire an employee to represent the county in the project and other county staff are supporting the multi-agency effort.
There are 45 miles of levees along the the Columbia River basin in Multnomah County. The levees are spread across the cities of Portland, Gresham, Fairview and Troutdale, as well as on unincorporated land on Sauvie Island. Five independent drainage districts manage the levees.
In addition to flood protection, the levees protect valuable industrial land, two Portland airports, and hundreds of acres of parks and natural areas. Thousands of acres of farmland and several residential neighborhoods are also protected. Ten percent of jobs in the county and $5.3 billion in assessed property value are protected by the levees, according to Oregon Solutions.
At a briefing before the board meeting, Levee Ready Columbia Program Manager Sara Morrissey updated the board about the project’s past efforts and future plans.
“We haven’t had a high water event since 1996,” Morrissey told the board. “So we are trying to be proactive in this process. The goal is to bring all of these jurisdictions, agencies, neighborhood associations, other public agencies and state groups together to talk about this levee accreditation project.”
In the project’s first phase, engineer assessments and studies were done in two North Portland districts. The studies found several areas which failed to meet new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) levee standards.
After Hurricane Katrina caused massive flooding in New Orleans and Superstorm Sandy damaged the east coast, FEMA and the Corps of Engineers raised their guidelines for levees.
If these problem areas are not addressed, the cost of flood insurance will increase and property value will likely decrease. In addition, the drainage districts could lose federal rehabilitation funds when a flood hits.
Commissioner Jules Bailey, who is the project’s convener, described the project as “complex.” He’s confident this is the right path to assure flood protection in Multnomah County.
“This is a manageable project,” said Commissioner Bailey. “It’s a project we can get our arms around. It's a project we can handle, and because of that we were able to expand the project to include jurisdictions to get this done at one time. That has meant a lot of trust and collaboration.”
In the second phase of the project, evaluations will be completed for three other drainage districts in Multnomah County. After the studies identify areas that need to be remedied, the team will develop alternatives to fix and fund any defects.
“Obviously the levees are critically important to my district, but I do consider it a regional issue,” said Commissioner Diane McKeel, who represents east county. “We saw first hand what a levee failure meant to New Orleans. I really appreciate that we’re taking a comprehensive look at our levees and addressing it on that level.”