SEATTLE, Washington, September 29, 2008 (ENS) – The National Flood Insurance Program is pushing orcas and several runs of salmon towards extinction, in violation of the Endangered Species Act, according to a regulatory finding issued today by scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The National Flood Insurance Program is implemented by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA. Without making the changes called for by the Fisheries Service, cities and counties around the Puget Sound could lose their eligibility for federal flood insurance. A total of 252 Washington jurisdictions currently participate in the flood insurance program, including 39 counties, over 200 cities and towns, and two tribal reservations.

The federal fisheries agency issued the finding, known as a biological opinion, as required by a 2004 federal court decision.

In the case National Wildlife Federation v. National Marine Fisheries Service, Judge Thomas Zilly of the federal district court in Seattle found that FEMA’s flood insurance program encouraged floodplain development and harmed salmon already listed as threatened with extinction under the Endangered Species Act.

Puget Sound salmon (Photo courtesy
Puget Sound Partnership)

He ordered FEMA to consult with the Marine Fisheries Service to ensure compliance with the Act, and the document issued today is the result of that consultation.

“We have always known that building homes and businesses in the floodplain was dangerous and economically senseless,” said John Kostyack, excecutive director of wildlife conservation and global warming at the National Wildlife Federation.

“With global warming causing sea level rise and intensified storms, the risks of such development are now higher than ever. With this decision, we now have a tool for reducing risks to both wildlife and people,” said Kostyack.

The biological opinion documents the ways in which FEMA’s flood program encourages development within the floodplain area.

Because most private insurers refuse to insure floodplain homes, FEMA’s insurance program allows development to occur where it otherwise would not.

In addition, FEMA’s minimum development standards for floodplain construction currently fail to include environmental standards.

Floodwaters damaged farms, roads, businesses
and homes affecting thousands of residents
in Lewis County Washington. December
2007 (Photo by Leif Skoogfors
courtesy FEMA)

“Even where flood risk is well established (for example, in Lewis County on the Chehalis River), the National Flood Insurance Program’s current implementation does not significantly restrict floodplain development or encourage the preservation of floodplain natural and beneficial values,” the biological opinion states.

It points out that the City of Chehalis has nine percent of its Urban Growth Area in mapped floodplain, and Centralia has 21 percent of its Urban Growth Area in mapped floodplain.

“Development within the floodplain results in stream channelization, habitat instability, vegetation removal, and point and nonpoint source pollution (NMFS 1996) all of which contribute to degraded salmon habitat,” according to the biological opinion.

By insuring development in floodplain areas, the National Marine Fisheries Service determined that the program was jeopardizing the survival of Puget Sound chinook, Puget Sound steelhead, and Hood Canal summer-run chum salmon, and adversely modifying their designated critical habitat in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

It also found that by reducing the prey base for Southern Resident orcas, also called killer whales, it jeopardized them as well.

The biological openion warns that implementation of the FEMA program in Puget Sound could result in a 30 percent reduction of chinook salmon in Puget Sound – the orcas’ favored food source – in the years ahead.

Puget Sound was once inhabited by at least 37 populations of Chinook salmon, but today only 22 remain. The remaining Chinook salmon are at only 10 percent of their historic numbers, with some down lower than one percent of their historic numbers, according to the Puget Sound Partnership, a coalition of citizens, governments, tribes, scientists and businesses working together to restore and protect the sound.

As required by the Endangered Species Act, the National Marine Fisheries Service set forth an alternative approach for FEMA that would not result in jeopardy to salmon and orcas.

FEMA and Washington State workers check
the bank erosion from flooding that is
endangering this house. January 2008.
(Photo by Marvin Nauman courtesy
FEMA)

The alternative includes new requirements that development within the floodplain and riparian buffer area be either prohibited or that its impacts to the stream be completely mitigated.

Any development in these sensitive areas should be required to use “low impact development.” This type of development specifies protection of native vegetation, pervious concretes that allow rain to flow through to the ground, narrow footprints, and rain gardens to absorb stormwater runoff.

Last month, the Washington Pollution Control Hearings Board declared that low impact development was both more effective than traditional stormwater controls like detention ponds, and cheaper to implement.

“Americans are getting tired of paying to rebuild flooded homes in places that should be left alone,” said Jan Hasselman, an attorney with the public interest law firm Earthjustice who argued the 2004 lawsuit against FEMA.

“The good news today is the federal agency scientists have stepped in on behalf of both American taxpayers and its wildlife and said no to building in flood-prone areas,” Hasselman said. “We think this is just plain old common sense.”

Click here [www.earthjustice.org] to read the biological opinion, formally known as the “Endangered Species Act – Section 7 Consultation Final Biological Opinion And Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Essential Fish Habitat Consultation Implementation of the National Flood Insurance Program in the State of Washington Phase One Document – Puget Sound Region.”

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DES MOINES, Iowa, June 17, 2008 (ENS) – Raw sewage is flowing into rivers and streams across central and eastern Iowa as one after another wastewater facilities are inundated by the record floods that have swept the state during the past two weeks.

Livestock manure is also part of the nasty mix, along with spilled fuel and chemicals, all heading to the flooding Mississippi River and down to the Gulf of Mexico.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is warning people to avoid contact with floodwater that may be contaminated with sewage or hazardous substances because exposure to the waste could transmit intestinal illnesses and skin infections.

Do not wade, swim, or enter floodwaters and immediately wash hands and bare skin that comes in contact with floodwater with soap and hot water, health officials warn.

It could be weeks before hundreds of damaged sewage treatment plants are operating again, say officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Flooded road north of Vinton, Iowa
(Photo courtesy Iowa DOT)

In southeast Iowa, sewage plants at Keosauqua and Bonaparte are flooded, and Ottumwa is allowing some wastes to flow into streams, DNR officials said. Officials in Burlington shut down the city’s sewage treatment plant and all Burlington sewage is now entering the Mississippi River.

The rising Mississippi burst its banks Tuesday morning, breaking a levee near the village of Gulfport and forcing the closure of the Great River Bridge that connects Gulfport to Burlington, Iowa via U.S. Highway 34.

Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, is planning for expected flooding in Illinois and Missouri later this week, with water and generators being pre-positioned as flood waters flow down the Mississippi River. Peak cresting along the Mississippi is expected on Thursday.

Right now, major flooding is occurring or forecast over most of Iowa, closing highways, washing out road and rail bridges, and snarling rail traffic across much of the Midwest.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been asked by FEMA to coordinate hazardous material and oil-related response in flooded areas throughout Iowa.

The EPA will retrieve orphaned hazardous containers and drums, such as fuel and propane tanks, respond to chemical and oil releases, collect and dispose of flood-damaged household hazardous waste, and conduct monitoring and sampling of air and water. To report orphaned hazardous containers or chemical/oil releases, citizens should call the EPA Region 7 24-hour Response Line at (913) 281-0991.

President George W. Bush is scheduled to tour the flooded areas on Thursday. Speaking to reporters today, the president said he wants to ensure that Congress appropriates enough money to cover this emergency and any others that might arise before the end of the year. The Atlantic hurricane season is just two weeks old, and will not end until November 30.

Floodwaters overtake the Iowa town of Columbus
Junction (Photo courtesy Iowa DOT)

For all the thousands of people who have lost their homes to the flooding, the president said he asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to set up a housing task force to assist them.

“I fully understand people are upset when they lose their home,” said President Bush. “A person’s home is their most valued possession. And we want to work with state and local folks to have a clear strategy to help people find – get back into a place that – where they can live.”

“I, unfortunately, have been to too many disasters as President. But one thing I’ve always learned is that the American citizen can overcome these disasters,” said Bush. “And life, while it may seem dim at this point in time, can always be better because of the resiliency and care of our citizens.”

Speaking to reporters on his plane today, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Illinois Senator Barack Obama said, “Thank goodness that we didn’t see significant casualties, but in terms of the economic losses in that state and the prospects of rebuilding, it is mind boggling. You’ve got the second largest city in Iowa that is gonna be under water for at least another four, five days. You have three million acres of corn that are effectively destroyed, losses are going to be in the tens of billions of dollars potentially and, we’re not done.”

“We’re gonna be seeing problems spill over as the Mississippi rises, it’s about to crest,” Obama said. “I was in Quincy, I think you joined me this weekend, to fill some sand bags and get an assessment of what’s going on there. Burlington along the Mississippi River, some of the river towns in Missouri are all gonna be impacted by this, and so I just wanted to assure [Iowa] Governor [Chet] Culver that we’re gonna do everything we can to get aid there rapidly.”

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Arizona Senator John McCain said only, “Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those impacted by the flooding throughout the Midwest. Cindy and I would like to extend our sympathies to all those who have lost loved ones, and stand ready to help those in the Midwest to recover and rebuild.”

During the past two weeks over 10 inches of rain have fallen in the vicinity of Des Moines, Iowa, and over large areas of northeastern Iowa, southern Wisconsin and west central Lower Michigan, eight inches more than normal, according to the National Weather Service.

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