Join Us in Safeguarding Valley Infrastructure!
Join the WSSA/Green River Flood Safety Initiative in our mission to hold federal, state and county officials accountable, to restore and protect and correct critical infrastructure and protect the people of Washington State. Register your support and stay informed.
Disasters like the Breach of the Green River Desimone Levee are Preventable!
Years of studies, plans, delays, and pet projects outside of the scope of the King County Flood Control District charter led to recent failures of levees along the Green River that subsequently flooded the industrial, residential, and farmlands of the Kent Valley.
We are coming together to hold the King County Flood Control District (FCD) accountable. They not only knew that the levees were compromised but the very sections that were at risk.
Agency Accountability Through A Class Action Lawsuit
Against: King County flood Control District - for failure to maintain federally authorized flood control infrastructure, potential misallocation of flood control levy funds away from critical infrastructure maintenance, failure to act despite documented engineering warnings, and breach of statutory duties.
Who is impacted: Property owners, businesses, farms, and industry with damages in the flood zone and all King County Taxpayers who contribute to the Flood Control District Tax Levy
King County Flood Control District Overview
The King County Flood Control District was established to fund and maintain flood protection infrastructure and collect property tax assessments countywide, for the sole purpose of maintaining flood protection infrastructure.
Federal Flood Control Projects have cooperation agreements with Army Corp of Engineers for Federally funded projects who require a local sponsor, such as the county or municipality, to maintain and oversee structural integrity standards.
Publicly available documentation reveals out-of-compliance status since 2009! Deferred maintenance of the Desimone Levee compounded by heavy rain caused a substantial breech in December 2025. To this day, risks and inspection results have not been publicly disclosed. Where exactly are all the Federal monies and our tax dollars going? Land acquisition? Habitat restoration? Department of Natural Resources (DNR) services? Non-government organization (NGO) Grants? Non-structural programs?
Meanwhile insurance premiums and real risks escalate without improvement to actual flood control.
Destruction from Long-Term Inaction Results in the following:
Physical damage to Western Washington’s largest distribution and manufacturing core, the Kent Valley
Personal upheaval and economic strain.
Project backlogs and budget projections that fall short of covering infrastructure projects. Over committing and under performing.
A continued hazard of unrepaired levee system putting lives and livelihoods at risk.
Deferred maintenance is increasing the cost of future maintenance or requiring even costlier replacements.
Increasing FEMA insurance costs.
Where things went wrong - so many ways!
KCFCD Had Documented Knowledge of Catastrophic Risk Since 2009:
In October 2009, FEMA Region X distributed a HAZUS loss estimation report to King County and all affected local governments quantifying Green River Valley flood losses at up to $3.74 billion under a levee-failure scenario (FEMA HAZUS Analysis for the Green River Valley, October 6, 2009, Scenario 3, Table 5). KCFCD cannot claim it did not know.
The Desimone Levee's Protection Level Had Already Collapsed Before December 2025:
A 2014 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers engineering analysis (Project Information Report GRN-01-14, H&H Appendix, Table 1) found that scour damage had reduced the Desimone levee's flood protection from a 250-year event standard to a 2-year event standard. The district was on notice of this engineering finding for over a decade before the December 15, 2025 breach.
A 2-Year Standard Means Near-Certain Failure in Any Significant Storm:
The Corps' own analysis notes that the 2-year protection level corresponds to conditions that would cause damage "with some certainty" — essentially the point at which the levee provides no meaningful flood mitigation (GRN-01-14, Level of Protection section).
Reallocation of Levy Funds:
The 2019 SWIF Deficiency Action Plan Documented Known Slope Failures at Desimone-Briscoe and Deferred Capital Action: The February 2019 Green River System-Wide Improvement Framework Deficiency Action Plan (SWIF DAP, Chapter 2, FCD2019-02) documents that the March 2018 USACE levee inspection of the Desimone-Briscoe School levee identified two Minimally Acceptable slope stability deficiencies — active sloughing at the riverward toe at River Miles 16.69 and 16.97 — and one unresolved maintenance item. Despite these documented structural concerns at a levee protecting an estimated 42,220 people and 2,725 structures valued at $5.6 billion (SWIF DAP, Table 2-11), the district's own optimization analysis assigned Desimone-Briscoe only a Moderate risk priority, with the planned response limited to floodwall effectiveness monitoring and routine maintenance repairs — not capital construction (Table 2-13). No capital project was scheduled for the Desimone-Briscoe segment.
Project WLFL8 DESIMONE MAJOR REPAIR -The major floodwall construction that was eventually budgeted...
The major floodwall construction that was eventually budgeted, remained $25 million unspent as of November 19, 2024, 391 days before the December 15, 2025 breach.
Demands for Change to Prevent Unnecessary Destruction:
Thousands of people experienced destruction to private property and business. Make your voice be heard!
Document property damages
Business interruption loses
Lost rental income
Decreased property value due to flood risk
Infrastructure repair costs
Relocation expenses
Expectations for Injunctive & Structural Relief
It is reasonable to expect that the courts could order:
System-wide levee safety assessment
Mandatory repair program
Compensation for property losses
Creation of flood mitigation fund
Public disclosure of engineering risk
Court supervision of repairs
Independent audits of the KCFCD, KC Auditor, DNR, Stormwater Management tax revenue
FAQs
Answers to Your Questions About Protecting Our Valleys & holding official accountable
What geographic areas does the Green River Flood Safety Initiative cover?
We focus on stormwater management and flood protection for Washington rivers, lakes and watersheds
How can I volunteer with Green River Flood Safety Initiative?
Reach out to us and we can help you find a way to contribute.
How can businesses partner with Green River Flood Safety Initiative?
Businesses can partner with us through sponsorships, corporate volunteer programs.
Does the Green River Flood Safety Initiative collaborate with government bodies
Yes, we have a long history of efforts to work closely with local, state, and federal governments to find resolutions to the problems related to water concurrency.
How is the Green River Flood Safety Initiative funded?
Our funding comes from private donations and matching corporate contributions.
How can businesses partner with the Green River Flood Safety Initiative?
Businesses can engage in sponsorships, volunteer programs, or consulting services for needs of the Green River Flood Safety Initiative.
Statements from those affected
“It’s frustrating,” Pasco said, “I want to be able to get in there and start cleaning out my house and picking up trash, but I can’t even get a truck in the driveway.”
“There’s some really expensive equipment there,” Binford said, “It’s going to be millions of dollars depending on what lives and what doesn’t live.”
“We had some water right beyond our house that was pooling, but they assured me it’s just from the rains and the runoff and it wasn’t from seepage from underneath the levee itself, even though the water’s right up to the top here for the last week and a half or so,”
“It was raining, and after like one or two days, like this, this area is totally flooded,” Awal Bashar, who was also evacuated Sunday, said. “There was a lot of water.”
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Register your support for protecting our valleys, and holding officials accountable. You can email us at [email protected], or call us at 1-888-768-GUSH (4874)
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