E-mail us at: info@inafsm.net

LEVEE SAFETY SUMMIT

February 26-27
St. Louis, Missouri

Flood risk managers, levee owners, and colleagues are urged to participate in a critical "National Flood Risk Management -- Levee Safety Summit", February 26-27, 2008. This timely meeting will take place at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, hosted by the Association of State Floodplain Managers and the National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies.    

The objectives of this meeting are to solicit broad feedback from and provide updates to local, state, regional, and federal officials and the private sector on vital national flood risk management policies currently under consideration at the Federal level, particularly by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  Key issues that will be addressed include levee certification/decertification, levee operations and maintenance, vegetation management, flood insurance and mapping issues, and residual flood risk in levee-protected areas. Special in-depth sessions on levee issues and a technical field tour of area flood loss reduction projects will be offered on Monday and Thursday in addition to the two-day program. Additional background information is available in the attached document. 

Hotel reservations can be made now by calling the Adam's Mark at 1-800-444-ADAM, be sure to mention "Levee Safety Summit" to get the special rate of $106 for government employees or $126 for all others. 

The program agenda will be available December 10 at www.floods.org/leveesafety and the brochure and registration forms will be posted on this web page by December 15.

Sponsored by:
National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies (NAFSMA)
Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM)

608-274-0123   fax 274-0696
diane@floods.org

Background:

The premier national organizations for flood risk management, the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) and the National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies (NAFSMA), have been working jointly with FEMA and the Corps for over two years to address the nexus of issues concerning the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) floodplain map modernization program and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) flood risk management programs.

In August of 2005, just days before the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina, NAFSMA and ASFPM representatives met with key officials of USACE, the Department of the Army, and FEMA’s Mitigation Directorate to discuss critical levee policy issues that both agencies needed to be addressing.  The dire need for a national inventory of levees and the development of a shared certification process for levees were key topics during this initial discussion.  Members of both Associations and the federal officials who participated were concerned about how the FEMA and USACE programs could be better coordinated, particularly those dealing with levees.

One result of these discussions was ASFPM and NAFSMA jointly sponsoring a National Flood Risk Management Policy Summit last December in Queenstown, MD, with the goal of bringing together key leaders from numerous national organizations interested in national flood risk management policy.  From this summit ASFPM and NAFSMA developed a set of joint flood risk management policy recommendations which were provided to FEMA and USACE, Summit participants, and other pertinent entities last spring. A follow-on briefing was held in September 2007 in Washington by the two organizations to further inform congressional staff, participants, and others on the status of these policy recommendations.

Much progress has been made since discussions were initiated in August 2005.  Both the USACE and FEMA have moved forward with guidance and policies addressing levee certification issues.  The recently passed Water Resources Development Act requires establishing a National Levee Safety Committee charged with developing the nation’s first comprehensive levee safety program. 

NASFMA and ASFPM now believe it is time to convene a “National Flood Risk Management – Levee Safety Summit” to seek input from across the U.S. This Summit will be held February 27-28, 2008, at the Adams Mark Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, because it is centrally located and certainly no stranger to levee issues, especially following the vast Midwest floods in 1993. A basic two-day program will provide information updates followed by several targeted discussion sessions where participants will provide feedback to help shape and guide the future direction of flood risk management in the nation. Additional special half-day training sessions and technical field tours will be offered on Monday and Thursday for those who desire more intense, hands-on exposure to issues.