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McDermott Provisions on Seawall in WRDA Legislation
November 9, 2007
For Immediate Release

The first override of a presidential veto relating to the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) is especially important to Seattle because the WRDA legislation contains several provisions Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) authored and championed relating to the critically important replacement of the Seawall.

As noted earlier after a House-Senate Conference Committee on H.R. 2864 reported out a bill that retained McDermott’s provisions to benefit the Seattle Seawall project, in brief they would:.

1- Allows the City of Seattle to pay now for work and get federal funding credit later. This allows Seattle to determine its own destiny, paying more when it can versus paying only what can be matched in any one year by the federal government. This moves the project along faster and saves money in the process.

2- This is a fundamental shift in how the Viaduct/Seawall will be evaluated for federal funding priority. McDermott’s provision requires the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to use environmental, economic and public safety impacts when determining priorities for federal funding. This allows Seattle to make the case for significant federal funding based on a complete local picture, including seismic concerns, economic interests along the waterfront, and protecting and preserving the seawall’s fragile ecosystem.

3- McDermott led the Washington delegation effort in the House to obtain a one year extension on Section 214. The provision allows a community to pay the U.S. Corps of Engineers to fast track permits instead of waiting for a standard federal response, which has saved Seattle an estimated $5 million over the last four years.

The provisions are rule changes which ultimately lead to more money, McDermott added.

“The seawall protects our crown jewels- the waterfront, viaduct and downtown,” McDermott said, “and these provisions will help keep the seawall replacement project moving along as quickly as practical.”