Posted By crates on December 8, 2007

I recently traveled to the nearby town of Puyallup, driving along a road that paralleled the Puyallup River.  I noticed that the rich bottomland along the river in the town of Fife, that had once been daffodil, berry or vegetable farms were now covered with apartments, homes and businesses.   The homes were built right up the the levee that kept these bottomlands from flooding.  The hillsides that lined the valley, steep and wooded, now had homes built on the steep slopes.  And these were relatively new homes.

Last Saturday and Sunday a big “Pineapple Express” swept through the area.  This is the common storm that sweeps into the Northwest from the vicinity of Hawaii, bringing in warmer temperature and lots of rain.  It appears that much of the problem that resulted after the storm involved flooding of buildings that have been built on flood plains.  Also there were numerous instances of hillsides slumping or sliding down to the valley, carrying homes and businesses with them.  I thought of the recent building that I saw along the river and on the steep slopes when I heard of the problems that occurred in some areas after the storm.

Why do zoning laws continue to permit building on flood plains and steep hillsides?   Why are these areas rebuilt after each successive flood?  Why do local governments allow the land with the richest soil to be covered in industrial parks and suburbs?

Categories: Ecology, Miscellaneous
Tags: Corrupt Local Governments, Fife WA, Greed, pineapple express