Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
achieving effective flood management diminishes
significantly.
The federal approach to dealing with flood
management is defined by the 'Unified National
Programfor FloodplainManagement', a document
prepared in1995 by an interagency task force at the
federal level (Federal Interagency FloodplainMan-
agement Task Force 1994). The Unified National
Program lays out a strategy for dealing with flood
damage reduction but has no statutory authority
to require agencies at the federal level or the states
to follow this strategy. As a result, it is largely
ignored and has been supplanted by implementa-
tion of individual pieces of legislation and guid-
ance issued bymultiple agencies across the federal
government.
In the 1936 Flood Control Act, the Congress
established the policy that flood control is a proper
responsibility of the federal government. As a
result, levees, flood walls, floodways and dams
with flood control storage are typically funded at
the federal level and require both authorization by
the Congress and the subsequent support of fund-
ing for the projects by both the Congress and the
Administration. When flood problems arise and
are brought to its attention, the Congress directs
that the problems be studied. On receipt of study
reports from the Administration indicating that
there are solutions to the problems and that their
pursuit is feasible and desirable, theCongress then
passes legislation authorizing the recommended
projects for construction. In a separate process,
the Congress subsequently might or might not
provide funding to support the construction of the
projects and the Administration might or might
not place them on its priority list for action. Each
project also requires a local sponsor, whowould be
responsible for providing the lands easements and
rights-of-way for the project, and subsequent to
1986, a share in the cost of the projects. In some
cases, the states were involved in these actions
between local sponsors and the federal govern-
ment; in others, they were essentially observers.
Following completion of the construction of most
flood protection structures such as levees and
floodwalls, the local sponsor must assume respon-
sibility for operation and maintenance of these
government was ultimately responsible and that
the state and local roles were secondary. In most
cases, state and local initiatives are very limited.
The report recommended that responsibility need-
ed to be shared at all levels to include assumption
of some responsibility by the individuals who
lived and worked in the floodplain. It recom-
mended legislation that would define the respon-
sibilities at each level of government. No action
was taken on these recommendations.
Translating Policies into Action
Policy development and goal setting provide di-
rection. Laws establishing policy are followed by
other laws that authorize government activities,
define implementation procedures in general
terms, and provide for the fiscal support of the
activities. These laws in turn are taken by agencies
and translated into regulations, operational guid-
ance and funding decisions that theoretically lead
to actions that support the initial policies. The
regulations and operational policies not only rep-
resent agency interpretation of the intent of the
laws but also reflect guidance given to the agencies
by the Administration and by the Congress out-
side of the legislation itself. In dealing with flood
management, movement forward is associated
with authorization and funding of projects, and
programs and regulations that affect land use.
Again, the same situation exists at state and fre-
quently at local level.
Unfortunately, the governance activities are
carried out by myriad organizations at the several
levels of government and the coordination of these
activities is often missing. Laws and guidance
prepared by a congressional committee dealing
with water quality might well impinge on flood-
plain management, but typically would not be
coordinated with legislation being prepared by a
committee dealing with flood control or dealing
with flood insurance. Governing organizations
at state and local level are often oblivious of laws
and regulations and the implementing guidance
at the federal level. As the number of these semi-
independent actions grows, the probability for
