Bills would provide tools for reducing flood risk, but funding up to local governments

By James Q. Lynch 

The Gazette

DES MOINES – Legislation creating new tools for reducing the risk of future flooding cleared a Senate committee Wednesday, but the cost of those efforts will largely be left to local governments.

The centerpiece of the Senate Rebuild Iowa Committee's effort was Senate Study Bill 3098 that changes the regulatory framework from the 100-year flood plan to the 500-year floodplain. Originally, it would have prohibited most construction in the 500-year floodplain, but was amended to focus on preventing critical facilities – hospitals and health-care, water supply and distribution, jails and emergency services – from being in located in floodways.

The bill would put into code many recommendations from the Rebuild Iowa Water Resources Coordinating Council. However, it did not address the funding streams the council recommended – expanding the state's bottle bill or taxing beverage containers. Floor manager Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, conceded there is little interest in that approach this year.

Instead, local government will either have to fund watershed management authorities from existing revenues or look to state funds, such as Environment First, he said. Another possibility would be to use funds from a three-eighths cent increase in the sales tax for natural resources, which will be on the ballot this fall. It could raise $150 million a year, but after the Legislature approves an additional increase in the sales tax.

Responding to colleagues' concerns that the bill's regulatory impact was too heavy or that it did not go far enough in reducing flooding risk, Hogg called SSB 3098 a work in progress.

“We are working as rapidly and urgently as possible to meet the needs of Iowans,” he said. “We want to pass something that puts the state on a different trajectory.”

Some committee members questioned whether the bill would inhibit development in communities such as Davenport and Sioux City, which exist substantially in the 500-year floodplain.

“Rather than say ‘no' to everything, people need to come with workable alternatives,” said Sen. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, who said the bill contained “pretty commonsense solutions.”

The committee also passed SSB 3189 to allow cities, counties and soil and water conservation districts to join together in watershed management authorities to form watershed management authorities to assess flood risks and water quality in the watersheds as well as look at options for reducing flood risk and improving water quality.