Leaky Dam

From the Seattle Times, 23 June, 2009:

The Army Corps of Engineers is lowering the water level stored behind the troubled Howard Hanson Dam after finding signs that water is moving through an earthen abutment "very fast," the agency announced this morning.

The dam, which provides flood protection for the Green River Valley cities of Kent, Renton, Auburn and Tukwila, has been under intense study since January, when engineers found several "anomalies" that suggested excessive amounts of water might be seeping through the right abutment and causing erosion.