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Conflicting federal policies may force thousands of residents in flood-prone areas to pay more for flood insurance or be left unaware of danger posed by dams built upstream from their homes and worksites, according to an Associated Press review of federal records and data.<\/p>\n
The problem stems from a complex set of flood policies and some national security precautions taken after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.<\/p>\n
To get the best discount on flood insurance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency\u2019s points-based rating system requires communities to chart all the homes, businesses and critical facilities endangered by a potential dam failure and warn people of their risk. But that\u2019s difficult or even impossible in some communities, because other federal agencies restrict the release of such information for hundreds of dams that they own or regulate across the U.S., citing security risks.<\/p>\n
The quandary has persisted for years, though federal officials have been warned of its implications.<\/p>\n
Federal \u201cdam information sharing procedures costs communities points, homeowners money, and potentially citizens lives,\u201d a California emergency services official warned in a January 2020 presentation to FEMA\u2019s National Dam Safety Review Board at an invitation-only meeting attended by dozens of federal and state officials.<\/p>\n
The meeting\u2019s minutes<\/a>\u00a0were provided to the AP this summer, nearly two-and-half years after the news organization submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to FEMA.<\/p>\n Since that meeting, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has begun\u00a0publicly posting maps<\/a>\u00a0of areas that could be flooded if one of its hundreds of dams were to fail. But similar information remains restricted by other federal agencies, including by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates about 1,800 power-producing dams, and by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, whose 430 dams in the western U.S. include some of the nation\u2019s largest structures.<\/p>\n The Bureau of Reclamation said in response to questions from the AP that it is revising its policies and will start sharing more information about dam-failure inundation zones in 2025, though it said the process could take more than eight years to complete for all its dams.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, FEMA is\u00a0accepting public comment<\/a>\u00a0through Sept. 9 on potential revisions to its Community Rating System, which awards discounts on flood insurance in communities that take steps to reduce risks. During a FEMA public hearing Wednesday, the floodplain administrator for Phoenix \u2014 the nation\u2019s fifth largest city \u2014 raised concerns that the conflicting federal policies regarding dam flood zones were unfair to communities trying to get better insurance discounts for their residents.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe this is a punishment to us,\u201d Phoenix floodplain administrator Nazar Nabaty told FEMA officials.<\/p>\n Another community that has been affected by the information-sharing gap is Sacramento, California, which ranks among the most at-risk regions in the U.S. for catastrophic flooding. California\u2019s capital sits at the confluence of two rivers and about 25 miles (40 kilometers) downstream from Folsom Dam, a large Bureau of Reclamation structure with a capacity that could cover the equivalent of the entire state of Rhode Island with a foot of water.<\/p>\n During a review about five years ago, Sacramento County achieved one of the best-ever scores in FEMA\u2019s rating system. But the county did not qualify for the top flood-insurance discount because the Bureau of Reclamation\u2019s restrictions regarding Folsom Dam made it impossible to meet FEMA\u2019s criteria for mapping and public outreach about a potential dam break, said George Booth, the county\u2019s former floodplain manager.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got wrapped around the axle,\u201d said Booth, now executive director of the Floodplain Management Association, a professional organization that focuses on flood-risk reduction in California, Hawaii and Nevada.<\/p>\n The city of Sacramento, which receives a separate flood insurance rating, has faced similar struggles meeting FEMA\u2019s standards for flood insurance discounts because of limited information about Bureau of Reclamation dams, said Rosa Millino, the city\u2019s Community Rating System coordinator.<\/p>\n For an individual homeowner, the missed discounts could make about $100 difference in annual flood insurance premiums. When spread citywide, the extra cost could reach several million dollars. When\u00a0costs are higher<\/a>, fewer people tend to buy insurance. But there\u2019s more at stake than just insurance premiums.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople need to be informed of the potential dangers of living in an area that\u2019s protected by a dam,\u201d Millino said.<\/p>\n As the climate changes, heavy rains from intense storms have put communities at increased risk of flooding and placed the nation\u2019s aging\u00a0dams in greater jeopardy<\/a>\u00a0of failing. That\u2019s been evident as recent floodwaters damaged or breached dams in Georgia,\u00a0Minnesota<\/a>, New York, South Carolina, Texas and\u00a0Wisconsin<\/a>, forcing evacuations and costly repairs.<\/p>\n Floods have caused about $108 billion of damage in the U.S. since 2000, according to FEMA. Standard home and commercial property insurance does not cover flood damage.<\/p>\n But FEMA\u2019s National Flood Insurance Program is available in 22,692 communities that have adopted and enforced floodplain management regulations. As of the end of July, it provided $1.3 trillion of flood insurance coverage to about 4.7 million policyholders \u2014\u00a0down about 1 million policies<\/a>since the program\u2019s peak participation in 2009.<\/p>\n Premium discounts ranging from 5% to 45% are available in jurisdictions that participate in FEMA\u2019s Community Rating System, a voluntary program begun in 1990 that grades flood mitigation and safety measures on a 1-to-10 scale. A Class 1 rating earns the largest discount.<\/p>\n Most communities don\u2019t seek the extra savings. Just 1,500 local governments take part in the Community Rating System, though they account for three-quarters of policies issued under the National Flood Insurance Program. Just two communities \u2014 Roseville, California, and Tulsa, Oklahoma \u2014 have achieved the top discount for their residents.<\/p>\n Roseville, which also is near Folsom Dam, used FEMA grant money to create its own inundation maps showing the affects of a potential dam failure. But the city still encountered difficulties trying to share that information with residents. While presenting the inundation data at a public meeting over a decade ago, consultant Rob Flaner said a Bureau of Reclamation official interrupted and told him to stop.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was ironic that one federal agency funded it,\u201d Flaner said. \u201cIt was like, `Ummm, maybe you guys need to talk to each other.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Roseville has since satisfied both federal agencies by creating inundation maps that show the overlapping flood potential of multiple dams without identifying the specific dam failure that could affect each home, business or important site, Flaner said. But Roseville is the exception, not the norm.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of jurisdictions that can\u2019t meet the requirements because they can\u2019t get the maps, or a federal agency is saying, `No, do not do outreach downstream of our dam,\u2019\u201d said Flaner, who has worked with nearly 300 local governments over three decades, first as a Community Rating System specialist on behalf of FEMA and then as a hired consultant.<\/p>\n FEMA says it is important for communities to have access to dam-failure inundation maps in order to warn residents in harm\u2019s way, That\u2019s because dam failures can spread floodwaters beyond normal high-risk areas and affect multiple communities downstream.<\/p>\n But after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, some federal agencies cited national security grounds while refusing to release certain information about dams. They said dams could become targets if terrorists knew the potential to cause devastating flooding.<\/p>\n The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission continues to categorize dam inundation maps as critical infrastructure information that \u201ccould be useful to a person planning an attack\u201d and requires those receiving such information to sign non-disclosure agreements, said FERC spokesperson Celeste Miller. But FERC can\u2019t prevent a dam owner from independently sharing the information.<\/p>\n The Bureau of Reclamation also has required non-disclosure agreements when sharing dam inundation maps and emergency action plans with local officials. Under its upcoming policy change, the bureau will allow communities to publicly share information about dam inundation zones, including potential flood-wave travel times, flood depths and durations, said Sandy Day, the bureau\u2019s chief of public affairs.<\/p>\n The Army Corps of Engineers, which also had shielded certain information about its dams, began posting dam inundation maps online in late 2021 after determining that releasing the information \u201cis more beneficial to the public than any risk of misuse,\u201d Corps spokesperson Gene Pawlik said.<\/p>\n Three years ago, FEMA sought public input about ways to revamp the Community Rating System to better incentivize communities to reduce flood risks. Several commenters highlighted difficulties in getting credit for dam initiatives, including the reluctance of federal agencies to share information regarding inundation zones from dam failures.<\/p>\n Nothing immediate came from the 2021 review. Though FEMA is again\u00a0seeking public input<\/a>\u00a0on potential changes to the Community Rating System, it doesn\u2019t plan to make any changes until 2026.<\/p>\nOne community\u2019s frustrations<\/h4>\n
Flood risks and costs<\/h4>\n
Security concerns<\/h4>\n
A complex system<\/h4>\n