# Presentation: 106733

## Floodplain ManagementSESSION 23

**Rivers as a Legal Battleground **
**State Policies**
**Prepared by Elliot Mittler, PhD**

**Notes:**
Title Page for Session 2

## State Policies

**Objectives:**
- 23.1 	Identify the major players in determining water 	policy.
- 23.2 	Explain why and how states operate together to 	manage interstate rivers.
- 23.3	Discuss State policy within the context case 	study floodplains.

## Major players in determining water policy 

- “widespread adoption of state...floodplain management regulations...did not occur until the 1970s”
- (L. R. Johnston Associates )

## Two Approaches Taken by States

-  direct regulation of floodplains
-  state standard-setting for local regulation

## Partnerships

- “Effective floodplain management is a federal-state-local partnership” The Governors emphasize that efforts to mitigate flood damage to existing development must be continued and strengthened.

## Delegation of Authority

- February 2002, the governor of California delegated authority to the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to convene a Floodplain Management Task Force.
- Task force was composed of 39 representatives from 27 groups representing state and local government as well as other interested stakeholders.
- Nine representatives from five federal agencies were unofficial members of the task force and “provided insight and advice.”

## Defining Floodplain Management

**Defining floodplain management**. (*California Floodplain Management Report.*)
**Floodplain**:: any land area susceptible by floodwaters from any source.
**Flood management**:: an overarching term that encompasses both floodwater management and floodplain management.
**Floodwater management**:: actions to modify the natural flow of floodwaters to reduce losses to human resources and/or protect benefits to natural resources associated with floodplains flooding.

## Reasonably foreseeable flood:

-     a flood event that is realistically probable for a particular area.  In many cases, this event could exceed a predicted “100-year” flood.

##  Impediments to Floodplain Management

**Impediments to effective floodplain management**. (*California Floodplain Management Report*, page 25.):
- Insufficient understanding of the risks from reasonably foreseeable flooding;
- Single-purpose approaches to floodplain management issues; and
- Insufficient technical assistance and funding to local agencies.

## Recommendations for Floodplain Management

**Recommendations for more effective floodplain management**. (*California Floodplain Management Report*, pages 20-21):
- Better Understanding of and Reducing Risks from Reasonably Foreseeable Flooding
- Multi-Objective-Management Approach for Floodplains
- Local Assistance, Funding, and Legislation

## Why and how states operate together

**Reasons for compacts are varied, but there are several common reasons, including the following:**
- Comprehensive river basin or watershed planning;
- Water supply allocation;
- Flood control;
- Floodplain management;
- Protection and restoration of fisheries, wetlands, and aquatic habitat;
- Water quality;
- Hydroelectric power and its distribution;
- Water storage and irrigation.

## Discussion of State Policy

- Teams should be given time to discuss State policy within the context case study floodplains