Flood Plain Plan Set Back

When the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) published its updated map of the Puyallup River flood maps in 2005, it started a long and challenging problem for the Puyallup River Valley including Fife. Tacoma and the Port of Tacoma.


Civic leaders have been working toward a collaborative solution since.  But such complex and expensive  problems are never quickly and easily solved.  One step along that process was set back when a necessary implementation step did not receive funding of  an emergency plan.  Yes, 100-year floods happen only one a century. But with the number of rivers draining to Puget Sound, one of them floods every 4 ½ years.


Although local governments have already put up $500,000, the national prioritization of such projects left the local problem behind. Still, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did fund it this year.


The Chamber, along with others of the Puyallup River Executive Task Force will necessarily keep working to resolve the complexity of the economic and environmental knot of flood control for the Puyallup River.