King County Executive Constantine Issues Public Comment on FEMA Notice

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 -- King County Executive Dow Constantine, Seattle, Washington, has issued a public comment on the Federal Emergency Management Agency notice entitled "Request for Information on the National Flood Insurance Program's Floodplain Management Standards for Land Management and Use, and an Assessment of the Program's Impact on Threatened and Endangered Species and Their Habitats". The comment was written and posted on Jan. 26, 2022:

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Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the National Flood Insurance Program's (NFIP) floodplain management standards under Docket ID FEMA-2021-0024. King County, Washington is a NFIP-participating community, and we have held a Class 2 rating in FEMA's Community Rating System since 2007. Flooding is a common occurrence in King County, and since 1990, we have experienced 13 Presidentially declared flooding disasters. Flooding leads to many millions of dollars in damage to public and private property and critical public infrastructure in King County and threatens the safety of our residents and the economy of this region.

Functional floodplains provide many benefits to the people of King County in the form of water quality improvement, flood storage, habitat, employment, and local food production. Today, we seek integrated and adaptable floodplain management approaches that reduce risks to communities, critical infrastructure, and agriculture while supporting and restoring floodplain functions and benefits. The choices made now will affect land use, development, and salmon habitat for generations. We need to make sure that policies are forward-looking and more equitable, account for the realities of climate change, and support the need to restore habitat for Endangered Species Act (ESA)-listed salmon.

Given our regular experience with flooding and the importance of our streams and rivers, we welcome the opportunity to submit comments about modernizing the NFIP. I understand that the NFIP has not been substantially revised in more than four decades, and several elements of the program should be updated to reflect current best available science, focus on equity, and strengthen climate resiliency.

A fundamental challenge with the NFIP in its current form is that the nationwide standards do not provide the flexibility necessary to manage floodplains in a manner that is tailored to the unique values and uses of regional watersheds. Some of the values and uses present in King County watersheds are found in the floodplains of communities around the nation, such as agriculture, economic development, and transportation. However, the presence of ESA-listed salmon in Pacific Northwest rivers, and our obligations to honor Tribal Treaty rights, calls for a different set of standards that emphasizes habitat protection and restoration.

Additionally, our rivers are dynamic and ever-changing. They flow relatively short distances from the Cascade Mountains to the Puget Sound. Salmon rely on these rivers - and importantly, they also rely on river floodplains - for critical habitat to support their life cycle. Moreover, the varied habitats that are found within a connected floodplain are among the most important for the survival of young salmon. Current NFIP standards do not account for this need, and in fact, NFIP requirements have sometimes slowed and added cost to our efforts to restore habitat. This limits our ability to meet salmon recovery goals consistent with salmon recovery plans and support tribal treaty fishing rights.

Dynamic rivers also do not conform neatly to federal floodplain mapping standards, and the process to produce maps is lengthy. By the time floodplain maps are issued, the conditions for which they were developed have likely changed, resulting in an inaccurate characterization of flood risk. Current federal Flood Insurance Rate Maps do not include an assessment of climate change or channel migration, which does not accurately convey the true risk of our dynamic river systems.

Finding solutions to manage flood risk given the breadth of values present in our floodplains can be challenging, and for this reason, introducing flexibility into the NFIP to account for regional differences would mark a significant improvement. As an example, the NFIP currently treats all activities in floodplains the same, regardless of intent. Restoring habitat for ESA-listed salmon is considered "development," even in cases where a project serves to increase a river's ability to attenuate or store floodwaters.

Importantly, the NFIP can also facilitate more equitable outcomes through flood risk reduction activities. With acquisitions being a tool to address the highest-risk properties, FEMA has an opportunity to introduce reforms to the NFIP that help residents secure safe housing within their communities and which acknowledges the higher cost of replacement housing outside of high-hazard areas.

Thank you for this opportunity to provide comments and for considering ways the NFIP can more effectively meet the needs of all King County communities. Detailed technical comments and responses to the questions contained in the Request for Information are provided in the following attachments.

View attachments at https://downloads.regulations.gov/FEMA-2021-0024-0224/attachment_1.pdf

Sincerely,

Dow Constantine

King County Executive

cc: Christie True, Director, Department of Natural Resources and Parks (DNRP)

Josh Baldi, Director, Water and Land Resources Division, DNRP

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The notice can be viewed at: https://www.regulations.gov/document/FEMA-2021-0024-0001

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