The Southwest Genesee Street Dam, owned by the City of Seattle, has an inadequate spillway capacity. The Tuck Lake Dam, owned by the Tuck Lake Homeowners Association, has outlet conduit deterioration. Neither of these dams have populations at risk of over 15 and work is progressing on both of these sites. Eight dams, with previous safety deficiencies, have been repaired since 1986. Effects Loss of life and damage to structures, roads, utilities and crops may result from a dam failure.
Economic losses can also result from a lowered tax base and lack of utility profits.
These effects would certainly accompany the failure of one of the major dams in the King County area. This section describes each major dam in the King County area and the effects its failure would have on the County. This section is based on studies which assume a complete dam failure that occurs quickly. In an actual emergency, other failures or partial failures could occur. The dam project consists of an earthfill dam, a storage reservoir, a pipeline from the reservoir to a regulating basin about five miles downstream, and another pipeline from the regulating basin to Lake Forest Reservoir.