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As rainfall inundated the Pacific Northwest this month, swelling the region’s rivers to record levels, the Desimone levee seemed destined to fail.Severe flooding in 2020 had damaged the 2.2-mile earthen barrier near Tukwila. Muddy waters from the Green River bubbled up on the opposite side and seeped into nearby properties. A King County report months later described the levee’s weakened state as the “most important issue” on the river’s lower reach.The years that followed were filled with red tape and bureaucratic infighting among the agencies most responsible for the region’s levee system: King County, its flood control district and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. All the while, cities in the flood plain clamored for help, and the Desimone awaited repair.Construction was set to begin this summer, but the Corps pulled out of the work in January, revoking promised federal funding and setting the project back years, according to interviews and public records obtained by The Seattle Times.Reagan Dunn, chair of the district’s advisory committee and a Metropolitan King County Council member, described a pattern of “tension” between the flood control district and the Corps.This month’s back-to-back atmospheric rivers pushed the levee system like never before. The Desimone was the first of two to fail.Earlier in the series of storms, water had once again begun to seep through Desimone’s earthen barrier, which shields a mostly commercial and industrial hub in Tukwila. On Monday, the river tore its way through, sparking a widespread evacuation. Officials feared the ensuing flash flood might be deadly. Workers plugged the hole quickly. Knowing the levee’s risk, they had already been watching the site for days. No injuries were reported in the breach.The patchwork nature of repairs at Desimone, and levees like it, illuminates the growing challenge of protecting Western Washington communities from flooding worsened by climate change.For generations, Washington has relied on levees as a simple solution to a complex problem, said Alan Hamlet, a former Seattle resident and scientist who now works as an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Notre Dame. Explosive growth behind them has combined with an overarching desire to spend the minimum required for flood protection, he said. That often means deferring costlier long-term maintenance, mitigation and upgrades of these emergency barriers in favor of more pressing needs. This has resulted in higher risks for the very communities the levees were designed to protect.The state, and much of the country, stands at the nexus of that growth behind the walls of inadequate infrastructure to keep natural disasters at bay, Hamlet said.“Put all those things together and you have a hidden crisis that is going to begin to express itself more and more frequently,” Hamlet said.The 18-year-old King County Flood Control District shuffles its priority levees based on disrepair that changes with the weather. The district has started to plan for the long term, but in its earliest years, it focused on inexpensive and easy fixes in high-risk areas, Dunn said.“In other words, low-hanging fruit,” he said.Flooding in Washington state 2025Bureaucratic tangleThe Desimone levee has been damaged and repaired multiple times over the past six decades. Most recently, years of disagreements among agencies dragged out Desimone’s renovation.The flood control district asked the Corps to step in not long after the 2020 flood. High waters in the Green River then had not only left water seeping through the levee in at least three places, but also bubbling up from underneath.Federal officials agreed to spearhead a plan to repair the levee and cover 80% of the cost. It proposed estimates up to $16.6 million for a project focused solely on restoring the levee to its preflood condition, records show.Such is frequently the case for levee systems nationwide, Hamlet said. Restoring them to their original condition is typically less expensive and complicated. Expanding them or exploring other options takes more time, money and political will.But the flood district wanted more for Desimone: a design that would fix the damage and relieve water pressure further by setting the levee back, restoring some of the river’s natural bank. It was projected to cost the district about $30 million.The district’s plan would take longer and cost more but reduce long-term risks, said Michelle Clark, the district’s director. “We want to do a bigger project so that we’re not coming back to do more repairs.”The flood control district handles planning, but the project hinged on King County finding land along the river for the new work, records show. But it fell short.These types of repairs are more complicated than they might seem, Hamlet said. Strengthen a levee in one place, and you’ll send floodwaters careening into another. Set a levee back from the river, or remove one to restore a flood plain, and first you have to clear out any homes or businesses already there. These structures aren’t the only way to hold back floodwaters, but in many places, they’re the system that’s already there.A failed dealThe Corps worked in fits and starts, at one point in 2022 halting its involvement due to staffing challenges. Even when the county made headway securing land, the Corps said it had used the wrong language in the agreements. At the same time, the county accused the Corps of clerical errors that dragged out the planning process, according to county records.The county — officials for which said they were unable to immediately comment, citing the ongoing flood emergency — was confident it could secure the land, just not on schedule, according to a county brief from April. It proposed breaking ground in 2026 instead.Citing the county’s “inability” to provide the needed land along the highly developed and industrial area, the Corps backed out of the agreement in a January letter.“We have been pushing them since 2020,” Clark said. “And it’s frustrating.”The Corps “worked diligently with King County” but couldn’t move forward without land for construction, the agency wrote in an email to The Times. Levee rehabilitation can be “complex,” it added. “The federal process, sponsor timelines and real estate actions do not always align well, but we are committed to finding a solution when possible,” the agency wrote.Abandoned by the Corps, the county and its partner cities faced their biggest setback, Clark said.Everybody blamed each other as the flood season approached.Concerns heightened after the Corps pulled its support. In July, city leaders from Tukwila, Kent and Renton asked the flood district to more immediately prioritize the levee repair project.Tukwila officials declined to comment, and Kent and Renton officials did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.As the fall rains approached — and without significant improvements on the levee — officials from Tukwila, Kent, King County and the Corps of Engineers spoke in late October to review the contingency plan in case the structure failed, according to Tukwila city records. They walked the levee bank to flag logistical challenges and clarified roles and responsibilities in case of an emergency.The Corps passed along its nearly complete project design for the Desimone levee, according to its January letter to the district. But without the federal government to offset the cost, the county’s grand plan was too pricey. The district has years of research and $25 million set aside for the levee repairs, but it might not be enough, Clark said; it needs to prepare options before it can move forward with a plan.The King County Flood Control District is now, in many ways, exactly where it was in 2020: waiting for the water to recede, preparing to assess the damage and on the verge of once again planning how to fix the Desimone.--Conrad Swanson and Lulu Ramadan© 2025 The Seattle Times. Visit www.seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

As an atmospheric river slammed into the Pacific Northwest, water burst through a damaged levee in Washington.