Remembering Irene

By Deb Markowitz

Preparing for future floods

Like many Vermonters this summer, by July, I was sick of the constant rain. My garden beds flooded. The house smelled vaguely of mildew. I was worried about the swollen rivers and flooded lakes. And, I watched the damage mount – storm after storm – to homes, to roads, to farms and to weather-dependent businesses.

There is little doubt that Vermont is in for wetter springs as climate change unfolds. Indeed, this year, May and June were the wettest consecutive 30-day periods on record for Vermont.

The floods we experienced this past summer, like Irene, remind us that rivers flowing through Vermont communities have tremendous power to wreak havoc. They also remind us that we must prepare for our changing climate and there are many things we can do.

We learned some important lessons from Irene. Healthy forests that absorb rainfall and floodplains that give rivers room to spill out and dissipate energy, will temper the immense power of floodwaters before they inflict costly damage to our town centers. Vermont's prized land use pattern – beautiful walkable villages surrounded by working farms, wetlands and forests – is the single most cost-effective strategy we can pursue to buffer communities from the impacts of fast-moving water. And, we can inadvertently increase the risks of erosion and flood damage when we remove debris and fix damage after heavy rains.

As a result of these lessons, the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) has been busy. We are developing rules in response to new legislation, to guide emergency stream projects after storms that will ensure public safety and the quick repair of critical infrastructure without inadvertently making rivers more prone to flooding. We formed a new partnership between Vermont's land conservation organizations and ANR that will target conservation efforts to protect critical natural places that make us resilient to flooding. Finally, state agencies are working together to ensure that new or repaired infrastructure is built to withstand future floods, and we are exploring policies to promote compact growth in historic town centers while preserving undeveloped floodplain areas such as working farms, wetlands and river valley forests.

We can also learn from the many communities battered by Irene that have taken positive steps to reduce their vulnerability to future flood damage. These communities have invested in conserving undeveloped floodplains, have rebuilt infrastructure to withstand future floods, have adopted local zoning bylaws to limit growth in vulnerable areas, and have used new techniques to better manage stormwater.

Here are some things that we can do in every community:
1. Ensure that floodwater has somewhere to go. Our farms, wetlands and fields provide a place where flooding rivers can spill out and slow down. Healthy forests also protect us by absorbing as much as 70 percent of the rain that falls on them before it flows overland to streams. Protecting these areas means less flood damage in our valley villages and homes.
2. Grow wisely in our river valley towns. When we invest in development in our historic town centers, we create places where Vermonters want to live, and we also keep the fields and forests nearby intact so they can dampen serious floods. But living near rivers calls for smart, flood-savvy investments.
3. Recover stronger: Build bridges and culverts to withstand flooding. Many of our culverts are too small and our bridges too low for the storm flows of today. And many roads are too close to our most unpredictable river channels. We need to better understand where our infrastructure faces serious risks so that we can plan to rebuild with resilience in mind.
4. Slow stormwater before it rushes into streams. Our steep mountain hillsides send water rushing downhill not only during storms like Irene but also during the smaller storms we've seen this summer. We must slow down this runoff if we want to prevent flooding disasters in the valley bottoms. By managing stormwater so it absorbs into the ground we prevent damaging floods. This also provides water quality benefits (keeping nutrient-high sediment and contaminants out of our water bodies) and helps to recharge our groundwater aquifers.

Irene was one of the costliest disasters in the state's history, both in terms of the human costs as well as costs to our communities, families and businesses. Using the lessons we learned from Irene, we can ensure that Vermont is stronger and better prepared for the future.

Markowitz is secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources.