Nebraska Legislature - Special Committee - Climate Change Seminar - FEMA

Joe Chandler Author

06/08/2016 Added

171 Plays

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Seminar on Climate Change for the Climate Change Seminar for Elected Officials of the Nebraska Legislature - FEMA

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[00:00:00.000]Talk just a couple of minutes,
[00:00:01.812]about some of our, FEMA's climate
[00:00:04.819]resilience mitigation activities.
[00:00:08.349]A lot of the things that we've talked about today
[00:00:09.997]kind of fit in this same category.
[00:00:15.454]One of the things that when we talk about mitigation,
[00:00:18.333]so slightly in the emergency management industry,
[00:00:22.443]that'd be your emergency managers, planners,
[00:00:27.575]flood plain managers,
[00:00:30.222]talk about mitigation slightly different than
[00:00:33.125]atmospheric scientists and EPA.
[00:00:35.772]When we're talking about mitigation, we're talking
[00:00:37.838]about more like climate resilience,
[00:00:42.925]adaptation.
[00:00:44.225]It's those actions that basically
[00:00:47.859]break the cycle of response, recovery, rebuild.
[00:00:53.014]And so it's really actions, long-term actions
[00:00:56.288]that kind of help reduce your resilience,
[00:01:01.373]increase your resilience
[00:01:03.324]and build upon your risk reduction.
[00:01:09.965]Again, as Dr. Wilson kind of eluded to already,
[00:01:14.632]we've got quite a few doctrines that kind of push us
[00:01:19.369]into the climate resilience,
[00:01:23.246]climate mitigation area.
[00:01:26.149]For us, the number one would be the
[00:01:29.841]FEMA's Climate Change Adaptation Policy,
[00:01:32.558]that came out in 2012
[00:01:35.158]and that was closely followed up
[00:01:36.668]with the President's Climate Action Plan,
[00:01:38.688]which Dr. Wilson kind of talked about.
[00:01:42.078]When we first got that,
[00:01:45.793]we started looking at...
[00:01:52.898]Skip ahead, just a little bit.
[00:01:54.733]We kind of looked at some of our policies,
[00:01:59.934]our actions, our programs,
[00:02:02.279]and where we could really kind of easily dovetail
[00:02:07.411]into climate change policies.
[00:02:13.053]The first ones that we kind of looked at
[00:02:15.120]were the hazard mitigation plan.
[00:02:17.512]That's a plan that each state has.
[00:02:21.668]Most communities, there's a state-level plan
[00:02:24.222]and then local communities also have
[00:02:26.614]a hazard mitigation plan.
[00:02:28.239]Part of that requires the communities to do a
[00:02:36.273]risk analysis of their hazards
[00:02:38.943]and then look at specific actions then
[00:02:41.289]to, again, mitigate that risk
[00:02:43.797]or kind of buy down that risk,
[00:02:46.490]manage the risk so to say.
[00:02:48.882]And when we looked at it, we didn't really want,
[00:02:53.897]when we were looking at the mitigation planning,
[00:02:56.010]the reason we kind of picked on that is
[00:02:59.818]we really didn't want to get into
[00:03:02.930]having to go through the process
[00:03:06.250]of going through a legislator, legislation change
[00:03:10.848]and actually having to go through rule-making process.
[00:03:15.701]Those of you guys, state senators,
[00:03:17.349]do you think its slow in a state?
[00:03:19.555]Try getting a federal regulation changed.
[00:03:23.549]It takes time, and we wanted to be a little bit
[00:03:26.568]more responsive to the President's Action Plan.
[00:03:31.676]And when we were doing the risk assessment,
[00:03:34.695]we don't look at climate change
[00:03:39.222]as a separate risk
[00:03:42.357]or a hazard per se,
[00:03:44.238]but we look at it as the effects of a specific hazard.
[00:03:50.809]I'll give you examples.
[00:03:53.480]When we go though the risk assessment
[00:03:55.453]we'll look at the hazards and we'll look at the location.
[00:03:59.911]This is what's required in the risk assessment
[00:04:01.908]where you're describing the hazard.
[00:04:03.348]It's the location, the extent,
[00:04:04.950]previous occurrences, and probability of future occurrences
[00:04:09.432]as well as looking at future development
[00:04:11.684]and impacts the hazards could have
[00:04:14.238]on the community.
[00:04:16.003]So we thought that our,
[00:04:18.604]when we went through our policy and guidance update,
[00:04:21.668]that we kind of explained what we're looking for
[00:04:24.894]climate change,
[00:04:27.936]that our regulations were kind of
[00:04:31.721]already general enough to
[00:04:35.017]kind of buy into that actions.
[00:04:40.498]Another area that we've been doing
[00:04:43.609]some work on, quite a bit of work on recently,
[00:04:47.348]is we've got four different grant programs.
[00:04:51.736]And even though, theoretically,
[00:04:55.707]climate change, specifically we're getting
[00:04:58.238]a lot out west, getting a lot of
[00:05:02.162]requests for if they could use
[00:05:07.062]our mitigation grants
[00:05:08.501]for drought.
[00:05:10.475]We didn't really have a whole lot
[00:05:13.703]of guidance on drought
[00:05:16.280]until just recently.
[00:05:18.463]But we do have four mitigation grant programs.
[00:05:22.503]Two of them are pre-disaster grant programs.
[00:05:25.289]One's called Pre-Disaster Mitigation
[00:05:27.425]and the other is a flood mitigation assistance program.
[00:05:32.186]They are out right now,
[00:05:34.322]and it'll be the first time that we are looking
[00:05:36.876]at a little bit more climate change
[00:05:41.489]action from those.
[00:05:43.810]The other two that we have are HMGP
[00:05:46.713]which is the Hazard Mitigation Grants Program.
[00:05:50.312]These are both,
[00:05:51.543]and Public Assistance,
[00:05:52.913]what we call 406 mitigation.
[00:05:55.212]That's the act that it came from.
[00:05:57.255]And both of these are a little bit more.
[00:06:00.064]Well, they're not a little bit more.
[00:06:01.597]They're post-disaster grant programs.
[00:06:08.516]From those programs as we were trying
[00:06:11.515]to look at
[00:06:14.665]how we could incorporate
[00:06:17.178]a little bit more, not standard flood
[00:06:20.266]but mitigation into drought and other hazards,
[00:06:27.348]we kind of went through a process.
[00:06:30.645]And we looked at 70 types of actions.
[00:06:35.336]From that, they had to be, obviously,
[00:06:38.284]compatible with our eligibility.
[00:06:40.885]They had to be technically feasible.
[00:06:42.766]They had to be cost effective
[00:06:44.391]which is always kind of a killer
[00:06:46.489]for some of our programs, actually.
[00:06:50.568]As well as,
[00:06:53.947]I guess, those are probably
[00:06:55.642]the main factors.
[00:06:56.803]But we looked at 70, and we came up with three from that:
[00:06:59.961]one being Aquifer Storage and Recovery,
[00:07:04.953]other one being groundwater diversion,
[00:07:08.018]and the other being, the third one being
[00:07:10.247]Floodplain and Stream Restoration.
[00:07:17.306]Again, this was kind of the
[00:07:20.548]options that we looked at
[00:07:23.250]and kind of came down to looking
[00:07:26.083]at water supply, water quality,
[00:07:28.939]and ecosystem restoration
[00:07:31.145]and flood control
[00:07:32.701]and then from that, picking those three.
[00:07:37.089]They all kind of come under the general
[00:07:40.921]category of what we call green infrastructure.
[00:07:44.311]And with that, we were looking at
[00:07:47.933]improvements of water quality
[00:07:51.138]as well as decreasing water quantity.
[00:07:56.873]Secondary effects of looking
[00:07:59.523]at drought mitigation,
[00:08:05.069]heat island effects,
[00:08:07.833]increasing the water supply
[00:08:10.364]and groundwater recharge.
[00:08:15.356]And with Aquifer Storage and Recovery,
[00:08:18.932]these again, there are in our grants
[00:08:20.929]that have just been released,
[00:08:23.720]the de novo on them.
[00:08:28.104]Aquifer Storage and Recovery is just like it sounds.
[00:08:32.028]You're looking at sub-surface storage
[00:08:34.327]in times when you've got plentiful surface water
[00:08:39.923]and then using it at times
[00:08:41.966]when there's drought or water shortages.
[00:08:50.534]Flood Diversion, the second one,
[00:08:53.390]it's basically taking your surface water
[00:08:56.943]and diverting it into either man-made
[00:09:01.215]or natural systems such as canals,
[00:09:05.883]diversion channels, basins, things of that sort.
[00:09:10.643]And it can also help with groundwater recharge
[00:09:14.752]as well.
[00:09:17.655]And then the idea is to then release it more slowly
[00:09:21.092]back into the system.
[00:09:26.688]And similarly, Floodplain Restoration,
[00:09:30.635]Stream and Restoration,
[00:09:32.051]it's really putting your systems back
[00:09:34.908]into a natural system where you've got
[00:09:37.694]a natural floodplain again.
[00:09:40.991]Typically, FEMA and the Corps of Engineers
[00:09:45.890]and Emergency Managers,
[00:09:49.466]the idea was to basically channel and get rid
[00:09:52.508]of your water, away from your infrastructure
[00:09:55.411]as soon as possible.
[00:09:56.966]But that sometimes causes problems
[00:09:59.637]downstream as well as additional flooding issues
[00:10:04.374]somewhere else.
[00:10:05.952]Now we're trying to kind of backtrack a little bit
[00:10:09.853]and go back to the natural systems
[00:10:12.199]and using the natural capacity.
[00:10:16.193]This can also build habitats,
[00:10:20.488]gives you recreational opportunities,
[00:10:25.782]taking advantage of those seasonal variations in floods.
[00:10:35.094]Again, these are just pictures
[00:10:37.276]of examples of some of the resilience actions
[00:10:39.436]that communities are taking
[00:10:41.735]for these three types of actions.
[00:10:47.424]I'm not going to get too much into the BCA evaluation
[00:10:50.790]other than to say that with BCA evaluation now,
[00:10:55.388]that's a benefit-cost analysis.
[00:10:57.849]Our projects for our grants,
[00:10:59.846]you have to have a benefit versus cost
[00:11:04.560]of greater than one.
[00:11:07.021]In other words, the benefit has to be more
[00:11:09.297]than the cost of the project
[00:11:11.619]for it to be considered cost effective.
[00:11:15.450]And when we went through the BCA evaluation,
[00:11:19.095]they're taking ecosystems into account for that
[00:11:23.020]where that, in the past, has not been part
[00:11:26.270]of the BCA evaluation.
[00:11:28.964]In fact, I think it was last week
[00:11:32.865]that actually the final guidances
[00:11:34.513]actually just came out on that,
[00:11:37.160]I think on the 26th and 27th is when
[00:11:40.876]those were released.
[00:11:44.312]Ecosystem services can account for now
[00:11:48.004]up to 25% of your total benefits.
[00:11:57.594]Not going to say too much
[00:11:59.057]about this, I guess.
[00:12:01.193]This is the Federal Flood Risk Management Standards.
[00:12:06.441]This was, other than to say that
[00:12:08.949]this wasn't necessarily just FEMA.
[00:12:11.828]This is part of the
[00:12:15.151]Executive Order 13690,
[00:12:20.028]the Federal Flood Risk Management Standards
[00:12:22.558]that came out last year.
[00:12:24.648]Basically, in the past there's been
[00:12:30.058]we're spending about 40 billion dollars a year
[00:12:35.840]on flood disasters.
[00:12:40.554]And approximately 80 to 85% of all our disasters
[00:12:43.758]are flood-related.
[00:12:45.639]So flood is, you know,
[00:12:47.822]we talk about being all hazard,
[00:12:50.918]but flood is still our number one hazard
[00:12:53.696]in not only this region
[00:12:55.461]but across the U.S.
[00:12:58.944]And this isn't just again for FEMA.
[00:13:01.522]This is a federal approach
[00:13:03.147]for all federal agencies
[00:13:04.726]in which the Executive Order basically says
[00:13:07.884]we're investing this much money.
[00:13:10.577]Why do we keep investing it,
[00:13:12.853]having it flood out again,
[00:13:14.711]and having to rebuild?
[00:13:17.334]So basically they're saying
[00:13:19.029]that we want to kind of protect
[00:13:22.629]our investments and looking at different ways
[00:13:26.112]or approaches to protect those investments.
[00:13:28.805]And they came up with three options.
[00:13:33.681]One is utilizing the best available data
[00:13:38.999]as far as future changes, future climate changes.
[00:13:42.435]The second one was two or three feet
[00:13:45.593]above what we call the 100-year or base flood elevation.
[00:13:51.537]You have to build up,
[00:13:53.557]building a free board in, so to say.
[00:13:57.041]And then the third one was going
[00:13:58.875]to the 500-year or 0.2% annual chance flood elevation.
[00:14:04.355]And that would be for anybody using federal dollars,
[00:14:09.951]not just us but the Corps of Engineers,
[00:14:13.875]Department of Transportation,
[00:14:15.942]anybody using federal dollars has to come up
[00:14:18.589]with a plan to how they're going to implement that.
[00:14:26.135]I'm going to kind of skip over this
[00:14:29.107]simply because the Drought Resilience Action Plan
[00:14:32.637]is very new.
[00:14:36.561]It was another Executive Order
[00:14:38.906]that was signed by the President
[00:14:41.391]in March just of this year.
[00:14:44.607]and they're just in the process right now
[00:14:47.138]of coming up with their charter.
[00:14:53.408]And that's just, like I say, a quick overview
[00:14:55.660]of some of the projects that we're working on
[00:14:58.748]in FEMA right now.
[00:15:04.855]Any questions, or,
[00:15:06.759]how do you dance with the Nebraska, with NEMA?
[00:15:12.030]They're our partners.
[00:15:14.259]We thought they were going to be here,
[00:15:16.256]today, actually.
[00:15:18.973]And we talked to them,
[00:15:20.807]and they said they didn't really necessarily say want.
[00:15:24.883]It's not that they didn't want to be here.
[00:15:26.985]Okay.
[00:15:27.937]But, heh, heh.
[00:15:29.585]But I think that they're a little leary
[00:15:33.811]of getting into cross-wise
[00:15:38.362]cause in some areas, it's still kind of.
[00:15:43.680]We used to talk about climate change
[00:15:49.020]two, three years ago.
[00:15:51.598]You had the people that weren't buying into it,
[00:15:55.290]not like you say, even the rural,
[00:15:57.379]you had a super-majority that are into it.
[00:16:00.584]So we work pretty good with NEMA.
[00:16:02.581]We work with them hand in hand.
[00:16:04.415]In fact, all of our projects, our project grants,
[00:16:09.245]we basically pass down to NEMA
[00:16:12.496]and they administer them
[00:16:13.959]down to the local communities.
[00:16:15.421]Okay, good.
[00:16:16.629]And then we work also very closely
[00:16:18.742]with DNR on flood issues.
[00:16:21.366]Okay.
[00:16:22.248]So those are our two main state partners.
[00:16:24.849]Good, well, thank you very much.

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Nebraska Legislature - Special Committee - Climate Change Seminar - FEMA

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