NORTHWEST VERMONT– The cost of Vermont’s seemingly yearly flooding is adding up quickly, but work is underway by organizations throughout the state to slow the effects. 

Following historic flooding in 2023, Montpelier swiftly passed Act 121, otherwise known as the Flood Safety Act. The sweeping bill aims to guide communities in regulating river corridors and lays out a plan for implementing stricter regulations around development near rivers. 

The implementation of the bill and its mandates are quickly proving their need as the Federal Emergency Management Agency is going through major reforms, and off the back of the federal government’s two-time rejection of FEMA help this year to towns in the Northeast Kingdom hit by flooding again last year – legislators are now considering using state dollars to help out. 

Baked in the bill is a requirement for the state and local organizations to offer education and outreach around the bill and its requirements, Franklin County had its turn last Thursday. 

What is the Flood Safety Act?

While Franklin County itself faced minimal impacts from flooding over the past few years, Act 121 takes a whole state approach toward flood safety. 

“Often the most successful flood mitigation, risk mitigation efforts are those that are taken at a watershed-wide scale,” said Alison Spasyk, a flood resilience educator with the Lake Champlain Sea Grant. “Becuase a lot of what this act does is take a state-wide approach to flood hazard regulations also in effect takes a watershed wide approach so that all towns upstream and downstream of the same river system are doing similar things to make their residents safe.” 

Really, it means folks at the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation are working on mapping river corridors – areas on either side of the river where the channel is expected to adjust over time – in order to make changes to minimize erosion damage in the future. 

The rules around development are yet to be written up, but the act aims to regulate development in river corridors, strengthen dam safety and oversight and increase floodwater storage in wetlands. 

Actual administration of the new rules is expected to begin in 2028. 

Many of the rules being put in place stem from generations of Vermonters altering streams. Old practices of straightening waterways or removing flood plains have created growing issues in the state. 

“After looking back at our historic approach, what we see is these efforts have not worked and in fact made problems worse,” said Shayne Jaquith, watershed restoration program manager at The Nature Conservancy. 

Those practices created a long-term effect of erosion style flooding. Erosion wears away at the land undermining areas next to rivers and streams. That style of flooding often leads to damaged roads, bridges, culverts and other river side infrastructure. 

Around 75% of the monetary flood damage in the state is caused by fluvial erosion. The 2023 flooding, for example, cost Vermont around $620 million in damages. 

“We know that floods cost our state a lot of money, especially these really large ones,” Spasyk said. 

Small floods also add up quickly for Vermont’s many small municipalities and are more frequent, Spasyk said, with somewhere in the state being impacted almost every one-to-two years. Vermont’s average annual public flood damage costs are $30 million, according to an analysis of damage from 2008-2021. 

“It might be quite a small regional scale, but it’s still very impactful for those communities,” she said. “We know that flooding is the most common and costly recurring hazard in Vermont.” 

Over the next few years, DEC will continue to work out the details of the river corridor maps with extra emphasis on the areas in villages and downtowns where infill development can be safe and where to avoid. 

Organizations already putting in the effort

Statewide presenters were joined last Thursday by regional organizations including the Missisquoi River Basin Association, Northwest Regional Planning Commission and the Franklin County Natural Resources Conservation District. 

Each organization gave a small presentation on the work they’re doing already to help mitigate flood risks. 

Starting first with the MRBA, Ellen Fox, a project manager for the association, said the group took over land in the Jay area and turned the area into a nursery. 

“The goal is to use the land along the river to grow trees bound to populate riparian restoration projects along the river,” Fox said. 

Another large project taken on by MRBA is a dam removal in Newport. The dam was originally used to retain water for putting out fires, but has since breached. 

By tearing down the dam, Fox said, they not only are working to restore aquatic habitat and promote the natural flow of the river, but also removing the threat of dam failure which would impact property and infrastructure downstream. 

On a similar note, FCNRCD community engagement specialist, Orenna Brand, started her presentation off with the district’s recent Trout Dam removal project in Berkshire. 

“There is still some work that remains to be done on this site … it’s already starting to renaturalize,” Brand said. “Some of the benefits are restoring the free flowing conditions of the brook, improving aquatic habitat and connectivity for trout and other fish and wildlife and stabilizing the newly exposed flood plain with native vegetation.” 

Still, FCNRCD is on the case for flood safety in other parts of the county. In Montgomery, Brand said the district has been working with the town on ways to improve flood mitigation in one of the more mountainous municipalities in Franklin County. 

Following stakeholder meetings with residents, work has already begun or is in the initial planning phases. Plan one is fully in motion with floodplain restoration and wetland restoration around the Fuller Bridge Road area. That project is funded and ready to start work this summer. 

“The intended objective is to reduce in-channel velocities, reduce erosion hazards and to install road embankment armoring to protect the road and adjacent infrastructure,” Brand said. 

Finally, NRPC came in at the end to explain how they fit in. 

NRPC takes more of an administrative view than boots on the ground, senior planner Dean Pierce said. 

“You could say the core objective is building resilience,” Pierce said. “A truly resilient community is one that can reduce the loss of life and property, recover more quickly after a disaster strikes and ensure vulnerable populations are fully supported during and after emergencies.”

“We aim to move the region from a state of occasional vulnerability to one of preparation and strategic management,” he continued. 

There are four pillars in flood safety and mitigation taken by NRPC: emergency planning, transportation planning, community planning and water quality planning. 

All four pillars deal with finding vulnerabilities and prioritizing actions which best serve municipalities. Whether that’s supporting towns in recovery after a disaster, drafting flood mitigation bylaws or providing grants as the clean water service provider, Pierce said NRPC works to keep municipalities ready and compliant with all new regulations. 

The new rules from the state alongside local organizations’ attempts to mitigate flooding risks and damages are all working hand-in-hand for one goal of creating a safer Vermont.