The tiny Multnomah County Drainage District is going to get some help figuring out how to strengthen the Portland area’s levee system, which keeps the area south of the Columbia River from being deluged by the river.
The 14-employee drainage district faces a federal mandate to recertify the levee system’s safety, under rules that got much stricter after Hurricane Katrina. Among other challenges, the federal government views Marine Drive — built atop the levee — as an encroachment that could compromise levee safety, along with hundreds of buildings, trees, utility poles and other things allowed on the levee over the years…