Getting People Out of Harm's Way

Call it bad planning, but for better or worse, tens of millions of Americans live in floodplains. As more and more of our watersheds are paved and as climate change brings more rain to certain parts of the country, the impacts of flooding seem likely to only worsen.

Making the situation even more exasperating is that federal floodplain insurance, which paid out nearly a billion dollars in claims in 2010 alone (and is arguably heavily subsidized by taxpayers), makes it possible for people to rebuild in the same place -- over and over again.

Why not use scarce public resources to solve the problem once and for all?

In New Jersey, the Passaic River Coalition has been a leader in doing just that: seeking natural alternatives and cost-effective solutions to reduce flooding conditions. PRC was instrumental in the creation and passage of the state's "Blue Acres" program in 1995, securing $15 million for the acquisition of residential structures located within floodways, as well as catalyzing the renewal of the program with $25 million as part of the 2007 Garden State Preservation Trust refunding bond act.

“When the first Blue Acres Bond Act was passed, it was not popular,” noted Ella Fillipone, executive director of the Passaic River Coalition. “ However, the program was very successful - the funds were all committed within 6 months. But even so, the Legislature was not anxious to increase the amount AND we were the only environmental organization pushing the program. Now, however, everyone is on board, and we will be working together to improve the program and increase the funding for it. The value of creating greenway corridors and additional open space in the flood plains has come of age in New Jersey.”

You can click here to see how the Blue Acres program is helping remove some ill-sited properties along the Delaware River from the floodplain.

As the economic downturn kicked in, and home foreclosures skyrocketed, PRC saw that as an opportunity to buy even more properties at a bargain rate. Stimulated by an ad on Craig's List, the PRC purchased two houses in the floodway of the Passaic River for $35,000 each.

Getting people out of harm’s way and restoring the floodway to provide natural cleansing functions is a win-win-win situation: it protects people from harm, it restores river habitat and, in the long term, it saves taxpayer dollars. It doesn't get any better than that!