New Hanover County already has in place many of the policies needed to help mitigate the more frequent flooding that is likely to occur as ocean levels rise, board of commissioners member Rob Zapple said after attending a national conference on the issue.
The county has already adopted many of the policy recommendations that federal officials promoted at the Rising Tides conference in Hampton, New Hampshire, said Zapple, who was one of two elected officials from New Hanover County to attend the late-October event, along with Carolina Beach councilmember Steve Shuttleworth.
“We in New Hanover are ahead of the curve and should be proud as national leaders in these important strategies that benefit communities and protect lives,” Zapple said. “It was a confirmation of a lot of what we are already doing.”
The event brought together mayors, council members, state legislators and other local officials from coastal communities from the East, West and Gulf coasts, who heard the latest policy proposals from federal officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The conference addressed what NOAA defines as “nuisance flooding,” where high waters cause road closures, overwhelm storm drains and otherwise cause inconveniences.
“In places like Texas, Louisiana, Oregon, New Jersey and California, they’re all facing the same issues we have here, like how to manage beaches, while protecting property values and small businesses,” Zapple said. “It was an eye-opening realization. While federal officials were detailing important strategies for dealing with these problems, I was checking them off, almost one for one, as things we’re already doing here.”
Many of these policies were what the Army Corps of Engineers described as “green method” for protecting coastal communities.
Zapple said those policies focus on renourishing beaches and fortifying dunes, as opposed to policies that rely on hardened barriers, like seawalls and jetties.
“You can’t fight the ocean forever,” Zapple said. “It’s better to create a wider beach.”
Specifically, Zapple said the county was ahead of many other communities with policies that encourage beach renourishment, strengthening dune lines and vegetating them, moving critical infrastructure out of floodplain zones, and strengthening building codes to lift houses above flooding levels to ensure commercial structures have the foundation to withstand flooding.
“Not all communities do this,” Zapple said. “In fact, most don’t.”
New Hanover County is already dealing with nuisance flooding issues that haven’t yet hit some of the other communities. One NOAA researcher had a map showing which coastal communities would experience 30 days of nuisance flooding per year, with many not reaching those levels until 2020 or 2030. But Wilmington was identified as an area already experiencing those levels of flooding, Zapple said.
Zapple said by attending the conference, he also had the opportunity to raise issues with federal officials that are affecting how New Hanover County manages its coastal policies.
Zapple said he was able to bring the issues of essential fish habitat studies to the attention of NOAA administrator Dr. Kathryn Sullivan. These studies are required for the county to receive beach renourishment funding, Zapple said, but delays in processing the studies often result in delays in receiving the study.
“I suggested allowing us to do the essential fish habitat studies locally,” said Zapple, noting there were NOAA biologists in Beaufort that could process the data. “It could potentially save us hundreds of thousands [of dollars] that are lost in the delays.”
Zapple said Sullivan was receptive to the idea and believes it could help foster policy changes.
Zapple also said that he raised with federal officials the issues of the federal Jones Act in beach renourishment, which requires all federal funding for the project go toward U.S. contractors. The issue has also caused delays and raised costs for beach renourishment projects, Zapple said.
“Several officials were not familiar with the Jones Act and how it affects us,” Zapple said. “That’s the value of attending a conference like this and discussing the issues in person. It was one of the best conferences I’ve ever been to.”
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