Murray Puts $22.6 Million in Senate Bill to Repair Storm-Damaged Levees throughout Washington State

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Murray (D-Wash) worked to protect Washington state residents by adding $22.6 million for urgent repairs to 58 storm-damaged levees in King, Pierce, Skagit, Snohomish, Whatcom, and Lincoln counties.

The 58 levees were seriously weakened by record floods in November. Murray included the funding in the FY 2007 Supplemental appropriations bill, which passed the Senate Appropriations Committee today with Murray’s support. Next the bill heads to the Senate floor.

“Hurricane Katrina proved that maintaining levees can be a matter of life and death, so I’m working aggressively to help protect our residents,” Murray said. “We can’t wait for another flood to fix these levees, so I’m fighting for federal funding today.”

Since the November storms, some Washington counties have asked the Army Corps of Engineers for help repairing damaged levees. In early March, the Corps notified counties that unless supplemental funding is secured in Congress, the Corps will not be able to make any repairs to the 58 levees. At current funding levels, the Corps can only perform investigations, and engineering and design studies (but no repairs) for 10 levees.

Now that the funding has passed the Appropriations Committee, it will be brought up on the Senate floor, most likely next week. The House version of the Supplemental includes no funding for the levees, and Murray’s funding will have to survive conference with the House.

Murray’s funding would support levee repairs in the following counties: