Columbia County's New Flood Control Zone District

DAYTON–In cooperation with the City of Dayton and Town of Starbuck, the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) formed the Columbia County Flood Control Zone District on June 17, 2019 with resolution 2019-34, pursuant to RCW 86.15. Per RCW 86.15.020, the district may be formed in two ways: 1) A resolution by the BOCC; or 2) A petition by the citizens. When the BOCC signed resolution 2019-34, the district was formed but not funded. The BOCC chose to allow the citizens to authorize funding. Columbia County’s Flood Control Zone District (FCZD) was created to establish a county-wide response to the growing threat of flooding. The mission is to reduce the risk of flooding damage to public and private property. This will be accomplished through master planning, maintenance of levees, implementation of structural and non-structural projects, and providing flood related services for the citizens of Columbia County.

Flood waters do not respect governmental boundaries

Flood prevention is most successful when they are completed on a watershed basis rather than on a governmental boundary basis. While the District is an independent county fund, the Board of County Commissioners and the Public Works Department are committed to establishing an outcome-oriented program involving local jurisdictions, tribal governments, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corp), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), watershed groups, and other key stakeholders.

Since 1964, Columbia County has been declared a federal disaster area six times due to flooding. The flood of 1996 caused over $30 million in private and public damages. A flood of this severity today would take a serious toll on general fund budgets, even with the FEMA, Federal Highways Administration, and Army Corps of Engineers cost sharing programs. Flooding affects all the citizens in the county by:

Destroying and damaging homes and businesses, disrupting government services, damaging transportation routes and bridges, stranding residents, contaminating water supplies, causing septic system failures, damaging infrastructure such as wastewater treatment plants, drinking water pipelines, power lines, ditches, culverts, bridges and other utilities.

All watercourses in Columbia County have a history of flooding and have regulated flood plains established by FEMA (Figure 1). This costs the County, City of Dayton, and Town of Starbuck money from their general funds to respond to and repair damage from flooding. In addition, maintenance costs to the levees also come from general funds, as does sediment management for the Touchet River in Dayton. For these reasons, the FCZD covers the entire county, including all of the cities. People who have homes or businesses in the floodplain are at more immediate risk, but flooding affects the entire region’s economy.

When public infrastructure such as roads and levees are damaged, the cost of repair is borne by all county residents. Additionally, the cost of emergency response is also spread county wide.

Why is the County Involved in Flood Plains?

The County and cities agreed to join the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). By joining the program, flood insurance is available to landowners within the county. In exchange for this, the county and cities agreed to enforce the regulations of the NFIP which includes the issuance of a floodplain development permit for all activities within the floodplain. The NFIP offers a program called the Community Rating System (CRS). By performing activities in the CRS, such as the FCZD can do, the county and cities can earn reductions in flood insurance rates. These activities have been shown to reduce or prevent damage from flooding, which reduces the money spent by the county, cities, state and federal governments on flood response and repair.

Forming the county-wide FCZD created a dedicated fund to provide the following activities: provide flood protection services, such as sandbags to citizens as needed, maintain and repair levees, provide matching funds for grants dollars, own, develop and cooperate with watershed management activities and projects, perform river maintenance projects, provide basin-wide flood planning, provide support for flood proofing and elevation of structures, provide flood warning and emergency response, identify, engineer and construct capital projects to mitigate and/or address flooding.

Provide public outreach and education.

State law identifies the BOCC as the governing Board of Supervisors of the FCZD. The Board of Supervisors provides policy direction of the district activities and selects flood projects to be funded through the normal budget process. In addition, state law identifies the County Engineer as the administrator of the district. To maximize the number of projects and programs that can be accomplished with district revenue and to minimize administration costs, existing county staff will do as much of the work as possible.

What is at risk?

Over four miles of Corp recognized levees are maintained by local agencies in Columbia County and protect 597.94 Acres of the county. These levees are all within the PL 84-99 program which provides financial and technical assistance to the levee sponsor. In addition, there is an unknown amount of Non-Certified levees within the county. At this time all certified levees within the County are rated “Minimally Acceptable”. Without an increase in the proper maintenance the levees are at risk of de-certification from the Corps PL 84-99 program.

Columbia County has historically maintained 1.58 miles of levees by a variety of funding sources but has been unable to fund any major improvements required to achieve an acceptable rating. The City of Dayton maintains 3.18 miles of levees funded primarily with general fund dollars on a limited basis. The Town of Starbuck has only intermittent funding available. The FCZD will offer a revenue stream for maintenance and therefore flood damage mitigation and prevention.

Currently only the County and City of Dayton levees have been recognized by FEMA as providing flood protection for some 560.88 Acres (See figure 2), which protects key facilities (Hospital, courthouse, and schools) that will be needed during an emergency. The Starbuck levee is not currently recognized by FEMA as providing any flood protection but has the potential to protect and additional 37.06 Acres with improvements that can be funded by the FCZD (figure 3). Huntsville currently has no levee protection (see figure 4).

Each sponsor is responsible for the maintenance and repairs of the portions of levee within their jurisdiction. This can create a maintenance disconnect, especially in the Dayton area where the County and City maintain portions of the same levee. On occasion, especially after a flood event, working within the river or creek is necessary to repair damage or mitigate for future problems. It is expected that this will primarily involve mitigation projects such as sediment removal in Dayton, bank protection near roadways, bridge protection, debris removal and vegetation management projects along Patit Creek and other small creeks throughout the county in addition to emergency repairs for which none of the jurisdictions currently have funding.

Why do the county and cities want to fund this now?

Flooding frequency and intensity are increasing. In Central and Eastern Washington the “fire to flood” scenario is also increasing. Many of the flood protection facilities in the County were built in the early 1950’s and desperately need maintenance and repair. As of the 2018 levee inspection, all certified levees within Columbia County have identified maintenance and repair issues ranging from less complicated vegetation removal to more complicated and costly culvert maintenance, erosion repair, bank stabilization, and riprap replacement. No jurisdiction has the funding available to provide the required improvements to this aging infrastructure.

Required improvements to flood protection infrastructure will protect lives, homes, and businesses. All costs related to response and recovery of public infrastructure come directly from the general funds or the County Road Fund, on a limited basis, which impacts the operating budgets county-wide. County Road funds are limited to work within the right-of-way and generally reserved for projects years in advance. Even if a flood event receives a Presidential Disaster Declaration, FEMA, Federal Highway Administration, and the Corps require a match paid by local jurisdictions. In addition, some costs, such as debris removal, are often not reimbursable. And in many cases, localized flooding events will not meet the thresholds required for a Presidential Disaster Declaration and all response and recovery costs must be borne by the local agency. The FCZD will establish a predictable budget and revenue stream to assist in flood response and recovery, as well as prevention.

With a funded FCZD, funds would be available to assist with flood response and recovery costs for any event. While a flood may have costs greater than the FCZD reserves, the district would facilitate coordination of county and cities, and provide an opportunity for them to work together and provide each other assistance with financial documentation, project costs, labor and equipment, and all other aspects of flood response and recovery. In addition, the County can maintain and repair the levee system with the cities in a coordinated effort using district funding and labor and equipment through an agreement. With a dedicated funding source, the levees can receive consistent and prescribed maintenance. Consistent maintenance ensures the levees remain in good condition and may prevent levee failures, such as when the levee was breached during the flood of 1996.

Additionally, with proper maintenance the levees will remain eligible for assistance through the PL 84-99 program; if an event such as the one in 1996 occurs the sponsor can call the Army Corps of Engineers and request emergency assistance to protect or repair the levee while the flood emergency is occurring. If an opportunity to apply for a grant or participate in a project comes up, having a dedicated source of funds can make it more likely that the County and/or cities will be able to participate or apply. There are many funding sources that can provide opportunities for flood reduction activities but most, if not all, require matching funds.

A FCZD improves the ability of the County and cities to own projects and oversee them from inception to completion. It also provides the County and cities more opportunity to coordinate with other organizations who are performing studies and projects within the County, or have an interest in the County, such as the Corps, National Weather Service, United States Geological Survey (river gages), conservation groups and tribal governments. Becoming more involved in these projects helps to ensure the projects will provide multiple benefits and meet the goals and needs within the County while ensuring the voices of the citizens of Columbia County are heard.

What is being requested on the November Ballot?

To adequately maintain and improve the existing levee system as well as provide the other services performed by the FCZD, the FCZD is authority by state law to collect a property tax or parcel fee for the exclusive use on flood related activities, programs and functions. The proposal before the voters is a $0.10 assessment per $1000 assessed value, which will raise approximately $100,000 annually for FCZD activities. This amount was calculated to meet the bare minimum maintenance requirements while providing some funds for identified improvements.

Additional funds will be sought out through grants and agreements in cooperation with other government agencies and private entities. This proposal will not cause any currently funded district to lose funding. The current maximum that would be available to the BOCC to address these issues is $0.03 per 1000 assessed value, less than 1/3 of projected need. Without the dedicated funding that would be authorized by the voters, the County will not be able to fully address currently-existing issues within the FCZD, nor respond to emergency events.