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State committee hears risks from unreinforced masonry; presenters urge database completion and tax-incentive study
Summary
State and local officials outlined the danger posed by unreinforced masonry buildings (URMs), described an inventory and user portal under development, and urged a tax-incentive study and funding to help owners retrofit or remove unsafe buildings.
The Technology, Economic Development and Veterans Committee heard a work session on earthquake hazards and the vulnerability of unreinforced masonry buildings, with state and local officials urging faster surveying, an accessible statewide database and a tax-incentive study to help owners pay for retrofits.
Maximilian Dixon, hazards and outreach supervisor for Washington Emergency Management Division, told the committee “we have the 2nd highest earthquake risk in the United States behind California” and that Washington faces multiple fault types, including Cascadia and near-surface crustal faults such as the Seattle and Tacoma faults. “So it is a matter of when, not if,” Dixon said.
The Department of Commerce and Washington Emergency Management Division presented results of an initial inventory that identified close to 4,500 buildings as either suspected or confirmed URMs: 1,176 identified and 3,317 suspected. Alice Zeila, who manages the research and development services unit at the Department of Commerce, described the 2018 proviso-funded inventory and an…
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