No Adverse Impact Committee

Christy Miller, CFM
Tetra Tech
1400 Shore Drive
Anchorage, AK 99501
907-632-5526
miller@atuonline.net

Maher Hazine, CFM
City of Peoria
8401 W. Monroe St., Rm. 210
Peoria, AZ 85345
602-918-0172 FAX: 623-773-7211
maher.hazine@peoriaaz.gov

NAI Committee Organization & Progress

The NAI Steering Committee which was organized after the release of the Doug Plasencia & Larry Larson authored No Adverse Impact (NAI): A New Direction in Floodplain Management Policy paper (5/2001) was integrated as a full policy committee during a Fall Committee Chairs retreat in Newport, R.I. ASFPM Vice Chair, Al Goodman began to implement a new policy committee coordination mechanism wherein the NAI Committee be aligned in a new Watershed Management group with the Stormwater Management and Multiobjective Management – now Natural and Beneficial Functions Committee. Doug now Coordinates the Watershed Management “pod” and asked Christy Miller to serve as NAI Committee Co-Chair.

2007 - 2008 Goals and Objectives

1. Conduct 6 NAI Legal training sessions (2.4.1)

2. Conduct 10 training sessions for Coastal NAI (2.4.1)

3. Produce a 4-hour NAI training module with instructor guide (2.4.2)

4. Develop a Best Practices showcase guide for better integrating one or more of the NAI building blocks into watershed linkages (2.4.3)

5. Operationalize components where NAI Committee is fully integrated as an ASFPM standing committee within Watershed Pod.

6. Monitor the progress of NAI, and start to evaluate how NAI is working,

(1) Federal policy as it relates to NAI,
(2) As part of another update of the State Programs in Review, query States about how and where NAI is taking hold.

7. Outreach to other organizations on how to incorporate NAI as a foundation of community development.

8. Develop a paper in concert with the Watershed Pod on – Integrated Catchment Management – to define the linkage and cross over between floodplain, watershed, natural beneficial functions, as well as explore the concept of flood risk, storm water and how best integrated.

2006 - 2007 Status Report

NAI Committee members met by conference call on a bimonthly bases, with the ever flurry of email communiqué, review comments and information exchange ongoing throughout the year.

Progress on NAI Legal Activities
Legal aspects of managing development and how NAI can benefit communities continued to be in high demand throughout the year, with activities scheduled well into next year. Demand for legal workshops continues because of the dedicated, tireless and spirited training efforts of Ed Thomas, Michael Baker Inc. All this progress would not have been possible without the significant financial support of Michael Baker Jr. Inc; as well as support from FEMA, the State of California and many others, including hundreds of pro bono (unpaid) hours from Ed Thomas over the past years.

NAI Legal Workshops/Lectures -
All Workshops Supported by Michael Baker Jr. Inc. unless otherwise noted:
February 21, 2007 Denver, CO Colorado Association of Stormwater and Floodplain Managers, FEMA and the Urban Denver Flood Control District Workshop [full workshop and a one hour briefing to the Annual Meeting of UCFCD] Supported by FEMA Region VIII and the UDFCD.

March 9, 2007, Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute in Denver, CO with Maher Hazine PE, CFM of Peoria, AZ and Doug Plasencia CFM, PE of Baker[short version].

April 9-13, 2007 at the FEMA-ASFPM Gulf Coast Workshop in New Orleans [short 1 hour plenary] [also be did two Workshop on Patchwork Quilt funding to help in NAI Mitigation].

April 14, 2007 at the National APA Conference in Philadelphia [short version] partially supported by FEMA.

April 19, 2007 first presentation of revised E-273 Legal Issues Chapter as well as Outreach concepts for FEMA Region IX and State of California, in Napa, CA. Supported by FEMA Region IX, the State of California and Baker.

April 24, 2007 at the First annual meeting of the Rhode Island Floodplain Management Association [short version-plenary].

April 26, 2007 1.5 hour Web-Cast to the American Council of Engineering Companies on Failed Dams and Levees: Examining Engineering Liability (includes extensive discussion of NAI).

May 2, 2007 All day NAI Legal Workshop with Doug Plasencia, CFM, PE and Julie Lemmon, Esq. (who is Counsel to the Flood Control District of Maricopa County) AFSMA partially supported by AFMA.

May 7, 2007 to the Annual Meeting of the American Council of Engineering Companies on Failed Dams and Levees: Examining Engineering Liability, [short version] (includes short discussion of NAI).

May 24, 2007 all day NAI Legal Workshop with Doug Plasencia, CFM, PE and John Marshall, a Nevada Attorney who has argued an important land use case before the US Supreme Court; for the Truckee River Flood Control Project, Reno, NV supported by Truckee River Flood Control Project.

June 3-8, 2007 at ASFPM Annual Meeting in Norfolk VA: Full NAI Legal Issues Workshop and workshop on Patchwork Quilt as well as panel on Wetland-Floodplain coordination in the context of NAI.

October 2006, completed several lectures and a "Protecting the Property Rights of All" Workshop at the Annual Conference of the Northwest Regional Floodplain Managers Association (NORFMA) and a Workshop at the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development. These sessions were paid for by FEMA Region X and extremely well received by the client and the audience. NORFMA, Oregon, and FEMA all indicated that they would like to repeat some or all of these activities annually. The Oregon NFIP Coordinator, Christine Valentine was especially happy that her agency Director was pleased by the Workshop got to speak at the Workshop, and most especially that he was better able to appreciate her contributions and by the work she has been doing from the standing room only crowd drawn to the workshop.

October 2006, Ed lectured to the Massachusetts Coastal Zone staff, and they indicated they were extremely impressed, and would seek funding from EPA and/or NOAA to put on additional full Workshops.

September 2006, Hot Springs, Arkansas Ed did a NAI Legal Issues Workshop; as well as a Workshop on Patchwork Quilt funding for post-disaster NAI and Mitigation focused reconstruction for the Arkansas Floodplain Management Association.

September 2006 San Diego, CA for the Floodplain Management Association (FMA) Ed conducted a full NAI Legal Issues Workshop; as well as a Workshop on Liability for Failed Dams and Levees.

July 2006 Ed did a short NAI based presentation at Annual Natural Hazards Conference in Boulder, CO.

NAI Coastal Workshops and Training
June 9, 2006 – Four hour Coastal NAI Workshop conducted in Albuquerque, New Mexico by Rod Emmer, Keelin Kuipers, Maria Honeycutt, and Ed Thomas.

September 21, 2006 – One Day Coastal NAI Workshop conducted in Maryland by Alan Lulloff, Maria Honeycutt, and Bruce Baird.

April 9, 2007 – One Day Coastal NAI Workshop conducted in New Orleans in conjunction with Mission Mitigation Workshop by Alan Lulloff, Windell Curole, Al Goodman, Bruce Baird, Mark Matulik, and Pat Skinner.

May 9, 2007 – Two hour presentation on Coastal NAI at the 8th annual Coastal Development Strategies Conference on "Smart Growth" in Biloxi, MS sponsored by the MS State Department of Marine Resources (DMR) and the Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce by Bruce Baird.

June 3, 2007 – One Day Coastal CNAI Workshop scheduled for the ASFPM National Conference in Norfolk, VA. Instructors: Alan Lulloff, Maria Honeycutt, Mark Matulik, and Bruce Baird.

July 18, 2007 – One Day Coastal NAI Workshop scheduled for the Weeks Bay National Estuary Education Reserve (NEER) in Alabama. Instructors: Alan Lulloff, Bruce Baird, and Mark Matulik.

July 19, 2007 – One Day Coastal NAI Workshop scheduled for the Grand Bay NEER in Ocean City, MS. Instructors: Alan Lulloff, Bruce Baird, and Mark Matulik.

July 22, 2007 – One Day Coastal NAI Workshop scheduled for Coastal Zone ’07 in Portland, OR. Instructors: Alan Lulloff, Keelin Kuipers, and Pam Pogue.

Interest in hosting a CNAI Workshop has been expressed by New York, Mass., Rhode Island, Florida, and Delaware.

NAI Publications
Coastal NAI Handbook – Another major project completed in January was production of a coastal specific handbook version of the No Adverse Impact (NAI) Toolkit initiated in 2005. The NOAA, Coastal Services Center was instrumental in their financial support and staff assistance in review and input.

Sustainability in the Context of No Adverse Impact Floodplain Management, white paper completed by Christy Miller in January 2007 with review input from all NAI Committee members.

Wetlands. The article which Ed Thomas wrote about the need for Floodplain-Wetland-Water Quality partnerships due to the Rapanos/Carabell case for the National Wetlands Newsletter was well received and has opened opportunities for increased linkage from ASFPM to the Wetland Water Quality community.

The Wetland Newsletter published an Article on NAI Legal Issues, which has been reprinted and widely distributed.

Natural Hazards Observer. Ed wrote a short article on the NAI opportunities presented by the confluence of Katrina, Rapanos, and the Property Rights movement. This article appeared in the November 2006 edition of the Observer.

With a true Patchwork Quilt approach to developing a solution to a problem: Wes Shaw, a NOAA Fellow based at the Massachusetts CZM Office; Sam Riley Medlock, CFM, who is currently attending Vermont Law School; Christy Miller, CFM, and Ed Thomas all worked together to produce three NAI Legal Issues Brochures.

September 2006, Revised the Liability for Failed Flood Control Structures NAI Publication with able assistance of ASFPM and Sam Riley Medlock a Vermont School of Law student. Posted on ASFPM web site.

Work underway on revision and update of Jon Kusler and Thomas's NAI Floodplain Management and the Courts (Nov. 2005 edition), with help of Sam Riley Medlock.

Other NAI Legal Support -
New Jersey-Mansoldo Case. Ed supported both the Attorneys and program staff involved in this floodway case with both legal arguments as well as Expert Witness analysis.

NAI Outreach
September 2006, San Diego, CA for the Floodplain Management Association (FMA) Christy gave an NAI presentation that included a short discussion on levees; teamed with CA. Division of Water Resources staff and Ed Copeland in a ½ day Comprehensive Floodplain Management session providing the NAI training module.

August 2006, Homer, AK ½ day work session, ½ day field tours with engineers, local officials, followed by public meeting resulted in a significant guidance document for the coastal Alaska community to implement No Adverse Impact approach to better bluff erosion, coastal floodplains and drainage, some attention to steep slopes. Christy Miller was lead on NAI input.

Prepared Letter to the Editor for Larson’s signature in support of the Sacramento Bee’s January 6th Editorial on FEMA’s decision adding mandatory flood insurance for Natomas levee homeowners.

NAI Small Community Brochure, Reprinted this year and copies provided to Kansas and Alaska, others on request.

NAI Tool Kit, Over 4,000 of the Toolkits have been sold for use by practitioners.

NAI Tool Kit Training Workshops, The PowerPoint for this workshop is completed/on web. The training has been offered a number of times. It can be used by others to train on NAI tools.

Spanish Version of NAI Toolkit, Under the NOAA project, the NAI Toolkit is being made generic to remove U.S. specific programs such as references to the NFIP. Toolkit is being translated into Spanish.

Local Ordinances, State and Federal Model Ordinances
NAI Committee members are trading and compiling good example ordinance language, regulations, permit review checklists and other practices that will demonstrate the implementation of the NAI approach. Lincoln, Nebraska and Homer, Alaska are good examples of communities across the nation that have adopted and are making strides at implementing NAI Ordinances during the past year. Information will be available for the ASFPM Conference NAI Track, and for posting on the website, with additional discussion at the conference. Another comprehensive document is under review, is being prepared by Ed Thomas, titled: POST DISASTER RECONSTRUCTION “THE PATCHWORK QUILT”.

NAI Core Committee Members: Christy Miller & Doug Plasencia, Co-Chairs; Ted DeBaene, Jerry Louthain, Ed Thomas, Nicole Fleck-Tooze, Chad Berginnis

Additional Input and Assistance during the past year from: Joe Tram, Chris Jones, Maher Hazine, Ed Copeland