Bill of the Day: Flood Resilience
Scenes during a week of longstanding rain and high tide flooding around Hampton Roads, Virginia. Friday, Feb 7, 2020. Photo by Aileen Devlin | Virginia Sea Grant
Flood Resilience for Virginia’s Communities
Virginians are on the frontlines of climate change. Coastal Virginia faces the highest rate of relative sea-level rise on the East Coast. Without action, coastal flood damage will skyrocket from $400 million to $5.1 billion annually by 2080. Rainfall intensity is also increasing, threatening coastal, inland, and riverine communities. Sea level rise and increasing rainfall threaten to set back decades-long investments in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay cleanup and coastal ecosystems. Worst of all, the underserved and under-resourced communities least able to adapt to, plan for, and invest in preparedness and protection face the greatest risks from climate change.
In recent years, Virginia’s leadership has taken important steps to reduce flood risk and build flood resilience. Virginia joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and designated 45% of proceeds to the statewide Community Flood Preparedness Fund (CFPF), with 25% set aside for critically needed funds for low-income communities. RGGI is the sole source of revenue for the Fund, which is already distributing funds statewide for critical flood resilience capacity-building, planning, and project implementation efforts.
Virginia has undertaken many initiatives to increase coastal protection and plan for climate change, including the release of the Coastal Resilience Master Plan this past year. Furthermore, Virginia was the first state to include sea level rise in its tidal wetlands permitting and the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act.
Some communities have identified billions of dollars in needed resilience investments, while many have not even begun. Virginia cannot lose momentum, and must ensure that this vital work continues with strong flood resilience legislation. For more background and to see all of our policy recommendations, see the Our Common Agenda policy paper, “Ensuring the Resilience of Virginia’s Flood-Prone Communities.”
Flood Resilience Legislation
Thanks to advocacy from our Partners at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, VCN supports a comprehensive suite of bills to integrate statewide flooding and resilience planning and implementation across the Commonwealth.
Passed
Delegate Bulova
HB516 and its companion bill, SB551, update the minimum criteria for development of the Virginia Flood Protection Master Plan, as well as align and update its standards with the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan. These bills also establish a Virginia Coastal Resilience technical advisory committee.
Delegate Bulova
This bill clarifies the duties of Virginia’s Chief Resilience Officer and the scope of responsibilities, from sea level rise to resilience and adaptation.
Delegate Bulova
This legislation establishes a $25M revolving loan fund for local governments and private property owners to plan for and mitigate flood events.This loan fund is intended to supplement, not replace, the monies allocated by the Community Flood Preparedness Fund.
Senator Lewis
SB508 expands the Soil and Water Conservation Board by 3 members, all representatives from flood-prone communities, and gives the SWCB the authority to administer the Community Flood Preparedness Fund.
Senator Marsden
SB551 and its companion bill, HB516, update the minimum criteria for development of the Virginia Flood Protection Master Plan, as well as align and update its standards with the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan. These bills also establish a Virginia Coastal Resilience technical advisory committee.
Defeated
Although the following bills were defeated, we look forward to working with legislators and stakeholders in the coming year to advance these ideas in next Session:
Delegate Bulova
HB520 encourages localities to adopt resilience strategies within their comprehensive plans including strategies to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and adapt to changing conditions and hazardous events.
Delegate Bloxom
HB847 was amended to become a study bill that will look at the best ways to improve how the state coordinates and funds resilience and flooding work in the Commonwealth. By adopting a study, the state will be able to explore solutions that fit Virginia’s unique natural resource policy landscape.
Take Action
Flood Resilience Policy
While our flood resilience policies faired well this session, our state’s only dedicated source of funding for flood resilience is under attack. It’s critical that we preserve the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in order to fund flood resilience initiatives. These proceeds are now being used by local governments across the Commonwealth – from Roanoke to Alexandria – to plan and implement initiatives to protect their communities from growing flood risk. Yet, Governor Youngkin continues seeking to destroy this program. If he succeeds, Virginia would be left with no way to protect our communities from the destructive floods we know are coming.
Take action by telling Governor Youngkin to stop attacking RGGI through EDF Action’s pre-filled letter:
Flood Resilience Projects
As session comes to a close, we are excited to see many of our supported flood resiliency bills pass through the General Assembly thanks to advocacy from our Partners at CBF, EDF, SELC, Friends of the Rappahannock, and Wetlands Watch.
Looking forward, Virginia can further improve flood resiliency and mitigation efforts by continuing to fund projects through the Community Flood Preparedness Fund (CFPF) grant process. The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation is now accepting CFPF grant applications from localities to advance flood resilience planning, studies, and projects through April 8th, 2022. Right now, the CFPF Grant Round 3 has $40 million available in grant funding. For more information and guidelines to apply, see an overview of the CFPF from Wetlands Watch:
Already, 37 localities have received over $32 million from the first two rounds of CFPF grant funding. Read more about these flood resiliency and mitigation projects across the state below: