County gets grant for a flood resilience plan
Emergency Services to lead collaborative effort in response to 2018 law, effects of climate change
Charles County has received a state grant that will be used to identify strategies for reducing flooding and improving community resilience that will bring the county into compliance with a state law passed last year.
The nearly $55,000 grant from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources will fund the preparation of what the county is calling a “Nuisance and Urban Flooding Plan.” It was one of 90 grants totaling $30.9 million announced last week by DNR for a slew of environmental improvement projects across the state.
The Charles County plan was one of only 10 projects to receive a grant aimed at bolstering community resiliency to the effects of climate change.
Charles County Department of Emergency Services applied for the grant in order to comply with a law passed during the 2018 General
Assembly session that requires counties that are susceptible to high-tide flooding that causes inconvenience to the public — called “nuisance flooding” — to develop such plans.
In approving Charles County’s proposal to develop the flooding plan, DNR asked that the plan also address the use of green infrastructure — the use of natural techniques for reducing and treating storm water runoff — to minimize the impact of flooding in the future.
To ensure the plan is comprehensive, DNR wants the county to undertake “a more holistic assessment and mapping effort to identify all potential problem areas” as part of the plan, according to DNR’s response to the county’s proposal.
The county will begin by identifying urban areas that are susceptible to nuisance flooding through interviews with county staff and members of the public. Those areas will then be surveyed and analyzed, and recommendations developed for mitigating flooding and reducing its impact on residents, property and county infrastructure.
According to the county’s proposal, the plan’s recommendations could include suggestions for capital improvement projects as well as changes to the county’s storm water management, transportation and emergency response systems.
Once complete, the flooding plan will be incorporated into the 2018 Charles County Hazard Mitigation Plan, which serves as the county’s blueprint for protecting residents and property from the risks posed by natural and man-made disasters.
The latest edition of the hazard mitigation plan includes detailed guidance on protecting cultural and historical resources. Charles County is only the second jurisdiction in the state to incorporate such guidance in its hazard mitigation plan.
Michelle Lilly, the county’s chief of emergency management, told the Maryland Independent that when the flooding plan is complete, it will serve as a template for other counties that are in the process of preparing plans of their own.
Lilly said she and her staff discussed the county’s idea for the flooding plan with the Maryland Environmental Service, which, she said, “does a lot of ‘think outside the box’ projects.”
“We just started talking with them because we had no idea where to go and nobody else has one of these plans in place yet,” Lilly said.
College of Southern Maryland Professor of Environmental Science and Geology Jean Russ told the Maryland Independent that the region is already experiencing the effects of climate change.
“It is warmer and wetter than it has been in the past,” Russ said. “We have seen, and can expect, more increased storm frequency and intensity, hotter summers, shortened winters with early wet springs, increased pressure on agriculture, increased public health issues as well as rising costs to maintain and repair existing infrastructure.”
Russ said that the region’s precipitation patterns have become more variable, meaning that wet years may be wetter than usual, and dry years dryer.
“The average number of flood days in various Maryland towns and cities have as much as tripled in the last 50 years,” Russ said. “It is expected we will experience from a foot to 2.5 feet of rise in Southern Maryland by 2050, and perhaps as much as 3.7 feet by the end of this century.”
Work on the urban flooding plan began on July 1, the start of the new fiscal year. Lilly estimates the process will take nine months to complete.
As with the preparation of the hazard mitigation plan, the county will invite a broad range of stakeholders to participate, including the county’s planning, emergency management, fire, communication and road departments; the Charles County Sheriff’s Office; and local environmental nonprofits.
“Right now, we’re in the very beginning stages, but we definitely want public involvement once we move for ward.”
Lilly stressed that Charles County residents would also be invited to participate on the panel.
“That’s pretty important to us,” Lilly said. “Right now, we’re in the very beginning stages, but we definitely want public involvement once we move forward.”
Russ warned that economically disadvantaged communities would be more likely to fare worse than more affluent ones in the event of flooding or other disaster, and their vulnerabilities should be examined in detail. The region includes “a number of unique ecosystems” that should also be reviewed for potential impacts, Russ suggested.
“Vulnerability is a matter of perspective and perception,” Russ explained. “What is vulnerable in my neighborhood may not rise to the attention of county leaders or the state, but it is vulnerable and will be impacted by the coming changes and may need our attention.”
In a world of limited resources, identifying vulnerabilities and addressing resilience must be defined and addressed at the neighborhood, community, municipal and regional level,” Russ said.
Lilly said that incorporating the nuisance and urban flooding plan into the county’s overall hazard mitigation plan will ensure that it will be updated regularly as part of the latter’s five-year review schedule. The team drafting the plan will also look for ways to align it with other county strategic planning documents such as the 2016 Comprehensive Plan.
“We just want to make sure that we’re not looking at each plan as a silo,” Lilly said. “We tried to achieve that with our mitigation plan, [and] we’re going to try to do that with this plan as well.”