May 11, 2008

TIDE TOGETHER

New FEMA flood maps force cities to cooperate on fixing aging levees

By Will Oremus / Daily News Staff Writer

Most of Foster City's 30,000 residents probably haven't given much thought to the possibility of a flood.

Built on land that juts out into San Francisco Bay, their city has scrupulously maintained its levees throughout the decades. In turn, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has kept Foster City out of the high-risk zones on flood maps it periodically publishes.

Now, however, a shift in FEMA policy threatens to place the whole city in a flood zone by spring 2010. Unless quick action is taken, virtually every household will have to buy flood insurance, at prices ranging from $348 to more than $1,500 per year.

The catch is that it's not up to Foster City to take the action. That would be the responsibility of San Mateo, whose own aging levee system is now being factored into Foster City's flood risk for the first time by FEMA.

"If they don't fix it, then our citizens suffer the consequences," Foster City Council Member John Kiramis said.

The situation, although unusual, isn't unique. Parts of Redwood City and San Carlos are also in danger of being declared flood plains due to problems with a levee owned by San Mateo County. To compound the problem, the levee in question abuts the landing strip for the San Carlos Airport and can't be raised without running afoul of Federal Aviation Administration guidelines.

In both cases, neighboring jurisdictions that have always handled flood issues on their own are being forced to take off the blinders and acknowledge their interdependence.

"We're all kind of working together to see what our options are," said Mark Larson, who manages San Carlos Airport for the county. "This problem cannot be solved without the city of San Carlos, the county and the city of Redwood City coming together to work on a solution."

FEMA has drawn some heat from local officials for its new policies, which include closer scrutiny of individual levees, and a shift toward assessing flood risks on a countywide basis rather than city by city.

"I think they're overexuberant because of the Sept. 11 disaster and the hurricanes in Louisiana and Mississippi," said San Mateo City Council Member John Lee. "I think they're just trying to make everybody buy flood insurance to help cover that."

Not so, says Kathy Schaefer, FEMA's regional engineer in charge of San Mateo County. She says the agency's new approach is needed to make sure communities aren't blindsided by a rare "100-year" flood.

"We've been using the same standards for many years, we're just reviewing them now in a very methodical fashion. I'm very confident that before the new map goes into effect, that all these issues are resolved."

Ray Towne, Foster City's public works director, understands the rationale. "If there's a flood, the water is not going to stop at the city limit line," he said.

Larry Patterson, Towne's counterpart in San Mateo, agreed that working together is the only option. "It's frustrating, it's difficult, and yet it's appropriate," he said.

The hard part is finding the money to fix the levees in a short time frame.

San Mateo estimates it would cost $2.6 million to get Foster City and several of its own neighborhoods back off the flood map. It's not a huge sum, but it's also not in the budget.

The city decided last year that its best plan would be to allow residents of the affected areas to form an assessment district, taxing themselves to pay for the estimated $2.6 million in improvements. That hasn't happened yet.

Meanwhile, Foster City has money set aside that it could pitch in. Kiramis said he'd be open to helping out if that's what it takes to spare his constituents the huge cost of flood insurance. But it could be a hard sell in a city that has already spent so much to ensure its own infrastructure is in good condition.

As for the county-owned levee in Redwood Shores, near the San Carlos Airport, that could be a thornier fix. The county didn't even find out about the problem until a month ago due to a communication breakdown, and the parties involved are just now beginning to brainstorm possible solutions.

So far, there is no plan and no cost estimate, admitted Malcolm Smith, a spokesman for Redwood City.

"It's a challenge, to say the least, to try and work through these issues with this number of agencies involved. But I think we are up to the challenge," he said.



E-mail Will Oremus at woremus@dailynewsgroup.com.