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Flood Maps, FEMA, the Corps of Engineers & Flood Insurance
SWFPD Director Les Sterman Speaks at Dupo/East Carondelet Chamber of Commerce Mtg.
by Jamie Carter
The Dupo/East Carondelet Chamber of Commerce held their monthly meeting on Thursday at the American Legion Post in Dupo. While the meeting contained all of the usual elements found at a chamber meeting there was a little more buzz surrounding this one as Les Sterman, Director of the Southwestern Illinois Flood Prevention District was the main speaker. Since taking the reigns at the SIFPD Mr. Sterman has been on the road speaking to government officials and civic organizations in Madison, Monroe and St Clair counties in order to inform them of the upcoming changes and what the devastating circumstances will be if and when the new FEMA flood maps go into effect.
Les Sterman is one of the Metro-East’s most capable regional leaders. According to Stltoday.com he may be the most influential person in the area you’ve never heard of. The Riverfront Times referred to Mr. Sterman as the Best Bureaucrat of 2009 in their annual ‘Best of St Louis’ edition. Mr. Sterman who was 34 when he became the executive director of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments in 1983, now heads the Southwestern Illinois Flood Prevention District, a massive governmental program to rebuild and improve Metro East levees. And as such he has found himself embroiled in one of the most urgent, important and far reaching issues to ever face Southwestern Illinois and the Metro-East. The new flood mapping of the Metro-East river bottoms by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency).
The Problem
On August 15th, 2007 FEMA announced that Southwestern Illinois Metro-East federally built levees did not meet certain new 500-year flood protection standards. At that time the Corps of Engineers estimated the cost to repair the levees would be 180 million dollars. The Southwestern Illinois Flood Prevention District got to work and passed a quarter cent sales tax in Madison, Monroe and St Clair counties to raise the needed funds to repair the levees. But the counties could not begin to collect the sales tax until the beginning of 2009 and with the downturn in the economy the projected amount of revenue generated by the sales tax went down from 12 million dollars a year to 10 million dollars a year. And since FEMA’s announcement in August of 2007 the cost estimates to repair the levees released by the Corps of Engineers has changed several times. Increasing from the initial 180 million dollars to a recent projection of nearly 500 million dollars. Making the sales tax moot since it cannot raise the needed revenue. SWFPD Director Les Sterman said, “I don’t think these government bureaucracies fully understand the impact of their decisions.”
In 2009 FEMA informed our regional leaders that their process of updating flood insurance rate maps would trigger new requirements and restrictions beginning in August of 2010. FEMA has since extended that deadline to January of 2011. And just this week FEMA and the Corps of Engineers announced the cost to repair the Wood River and Metro East Sanitary District levees at 270 million dollars. These figures do not include the Prairie Du Pont or Fish Lake levees which protect Dupo, East Carondelet and Columbia. But with insufficient local funding and not enough assistance from the Federal government, the process of repairing the levees to new FEMA standards seems unlikely at this point. That makes the prospect of mandatory National Flood Insurance a distinct probability for residents and businesses within the American Bottoms flood plain.
Relevant History
In 2003 the federal government decided to revamp the National Flood Insurance Program and their flood maps used to determine flood insurance rates. The maps define which areas are subject to flooding, where there are risks of flooding and then determines who will be required to purchase federally subsidized flood insurance. Prior to 2003 the last time the maps were done was in the 1970’s and obviously there is better technology to create maps now and better technology to help us understand where floods are likely to occur. Mr. Sterman said, “Until lately levees are not front page news. When they do their job we don’t even notice that they’re there. It’s not until something like this comes along that we understand how important and critical they are to our region and our economy.”
The big issue with the American Bottoms levees is under seepage. Under seepage occurs when the river rises against the levee and the increased water pressure tries to work it’s way under the levee. When under seepage is not controlled it can bring sand from under the levee and erode the foundation of the levee. Local residents will recall that at the height of the ‘Flood of 93’ volunteers, levee board members and National Guardsmen were fighting a constant battle against under seepage as they patrolled the levees seeking ‘sand boils’ and then working frantically to contain them. It has been suggested that under seepage is what led the Corps of Engineers and FEMA to designate all of the American Bottoms as an unprotected flood plain since those levees do not meet the new 500-year flood requirements set by FEMA.
This means that the new flood maps treat the American Bottoms as if there are no levees at all and thus require all businesses and residents with mortgages to carry National Flood Insurance. In effect what the new flood maps will do is kill any economic development or growth in the entire American Bottoms flood plain, which runs from Wood River south to Columbia and east from the Mississippi River to Illinois Highway 157. The combination of higher flood insurance premiums with new regulations and requirements would be cost prohibitive to business and any new development.
Current Local Impact
Perhaps part of this new initiative by FEMA is to infuse the cash strapped National Flood Insurance Program with new revenue. SWFPD Director Les Sterman said, “I estimate that the total access insurance premium that we’re going to be paying in this region from homeowners and businesses is probably going to be somewhere between 30 and 50 million dollars per year. That money is not going to go into repairing the levees, that money is going to go elsewhere to pay off claims somewhere else.”
Although the new flood maps are not slated to go into effect until January 2011, some local businesses are already being instructed by their banks and finance companies to purchase National Flood Insurance. Custom Blending and Packing located in Dupo has already been required to purchase National Flood Insurance at the cost of $12,000 per year, a major expense for any small business. Craig Seelman of Custom Blending said, “We purchased this property back in 2003 and at that time we were not considered in the flood plain. We added a new building in 2008 and then afterward we were told we are in a flood plain. Not just the new building but the old one as well. None of this was told to us until after we signed the note on the new loan. FEMA told our bank that the maps were changed and then the bank required the flood insurance.” At the Dupo/East Carondelet Chamber of Commerce meeting a representative from the Sauget Illinois chamber was present and told of a situation involving Affton Chemical. Reportedly Affton Chemical has also been notified by their lenders to purchase National Flood Insurance at a cost of approximately 1 million dollars a year. A concern for all local officials who want to prevent the loss of industry and jobs from the region due to an increase in the cost of doing business in the region. Touchette Hospital in Centreville could not maeven obtain insurance in the US and had to get it from Lloyds of London at a cost of $32,000 per year.
What about federal stimulus funds?
Some have asked about the use of federal stimulus money to repair the levees and thus avoid the need for National Flood Insurance. But federal stimulus money is not available for levee repairs because there is a federal program already in place to help build and rebuild the nation’s levee systems. But it is not an entitlement program, meaning that just because you have a federal levee in your area it does not mean that you automatically receive funding for that levee’s upkeep. What it does mean is that you are eligible to apply for that funding and compete with other communities across the country for that funding. Congress then decides through appropriations bills how much each area will get, if anything at all. In recent years the American Bottoms has received little funding from the Federal government and next years projected amount is only 2.1 million dollars and the Prairie Du Pont levees will receive none of those funds. So with the minimal funding compared to the ever increasing projected cost of repairing the levees, it would take a very long time to complete repairs and by that time the new flood maps will have been in place for a very long time and the economy within the American Bottoms will not even exist.
If or when the Federal government does approve funding for levees, the money automatically goes to the Corps of Engineers to be used as they see fit. The Corps of Engineers are then charged with the upkeep and repairs of the levees even though the local counties and communities own the levees. The problem with that is two fold. First, the tremendous bureaucracy of the Corps of Engineers makes getting any repairs completed in a timely fashion almost impossible. Second, the Corps of Engineers keeps increasing the estimated cost of the project, making it difficult for the local counties to come up with their share of the funding.
The State’s Role
While the State of Illinois has never been involved with funding or maintaining river levees, they are involved with this issue because of an executive order signed by former Illinois Governor Rod Blagoevich in 2006. That order has come under fire from local politicians and officials because of its impact on the American Bottoms flood plain. SWFPD Director Les Sterman said, “Rod Blagoevich’s executive order of 2006 doesn’t really impact the process of repairing the levees. But it will affect virtually everything else that happens while we’re trying to fix them. That order says that if these new flood maps are implemented any critical facilities like roads, bridges, nursing homes, schools, police stations and fire stations must be built to 500 year flood standards which is higher than the 100 year standard that the federal government requires.” State Senator Bob Haine and State Representative Holbrook have introduced legislation to rescind that order and Mr. Sterman testified just last week at hearings regarding that bill. “We’ve got to fix that problem because it’s a serious one. The language in that order would prevent us from building a new Mississippi river bridge or rebuild Route 3.”
What Happens Now?
In November the SWFPD requested data and reports from the Corps of Engineers and FEMA that supports their assertion that the levees need such costly repairs and thus changes the flood maps for the American Bottoms region. So far there has been no reply from FEMA on those records and data. SWFPD Director Les Sterman said, “The Corps of Engineers never certified or de-certified the levees. All they said was that they did not have enough information to do that. That’s why we’re trying to get that information.” Illinois Senator Dick Durbin supported that request and worked with FEMA to delay the flood maps implementation date from August of 2010 to January of 2011. However, that does little to ease the concerns of local businesses and homeowners still facing the possibility of costly, mandatory flood insurance.
Currently a bill that US Representative Jerry Costello has introduced (HR 3415) would postpone the new Flood Maps for seven years giving areas like ours time to make repairs to the levees to meet FEMA’s requirements and thus not require residents to purchase flood insurance. While the measure has been supported by local officials and fellow Illinois Representative John Shimkus, it is currently stuck in committee in the House. Costello says his bill has been held up because the committee that it has been assigned to, the House Financial Services Committee, has been busy with banking reform legislation. The chairman of that committee has expressed a desire to deal with the bill but not until banking reform is complete. Meanwile it seems that Senator Dick Durbin has come out in favor of mandatory flood insurance whether the levees are repaired or not. Durbin spokesperson Christina Mulka was quoted by the Illinois Business Journal as saying, “We’re also looking to introduce a bill in the Senate. We want to make sure that it goes far enough to protect individuals who are currently living within the floodplain, possibly without insurance. While I think it’s one thing to delay the implementation of the maps, you can’t do anything to delay
mother nature.” Mulka said they believe property owners should be required to buy flood insurance but something needs to be done to keep the insurance premiums affordable.
If you would like to contact your congressman regarding US Rep. Jerry Costello’s bill HR 3415 or just to make your opinion regarding the levee repairs known, here are their addresses and phone numbers;
Senator Richard Durbin
525 South 8th St.
Springfield, IL 62703
(217) 492-4062
Senator Roland Burris
607 East Adams
Suite 1520
Springfield, IL 62701
(217) 492-5089
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