The Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan & Flood Mitigation Fund

Coastal Virginia is threatened by rising waters. High rates of land subsidence, combined with sea level rise, means Virginia is experiencing one of the highest rates of relative sea level rise in the United States. Virginia has experienced more than 18 inches of relative sea level rise in the past 100 years. More intense hurricanes and nor’easters, more frequent heavy rainfall events and increased frequency of tidal flooding from sea level rise are predicted from the changing climate.

Climate change is to a large extent attributed to human-produced carbon emissions. Though global energy-related CO2 emissions fell during the pandemic, this is expected to be temporary. Emissions of carbon dioxide have on average been rising by about 1% per year worldwide for the past decade despite the efforts of many nations to curtail fossil fuel use. Scientists tell us that increased CO2 in the atmosphere inflicts climate changes that will result in the continued rising sea level and more severe storms that threatens the property and livelihood of  Virginians who call the tidewater home.

The tidewater, Virginia’s coastal region, covers 8,950 square miles, approximately one quarter of the state. There are more than 10,000 miles of tidally influenced shoreline at risk of flooding. Recent estimates show that 250,000 acres of land, 1,469 miles of roads, and property valued at $17.4 billion lie less than five feet above the high tide line in Virginia. Joshua Saks, Deputy Secretary of Natural Resources, came to speak to the virtual meeting of the Potomac Watershed Roundtable last Friday about the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan and the Flood Mitigation Fund.

The Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Planning Framework lays out the Commonwealth’s approach to coastal protection and adaptation which is intended to make our coastal communities and economies more resilient to increased flooding expected from subsidence of the land and climate change. This Framework establishes the goals, objectives, guiding principles, and key actions the Commonwealth plans to take to enhance costal resilience, with an emphasis on protecting key assets, developing cost-effective natural strategies, conserving and enhancing natural flood controls, and ensuring equity for underserved communities. The Master Planning Framework was created by Executive Order 24, signed by the Governor in November of 2018.

The Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Fund was established to provide support for regions and localities across Virginia to reduce the impacts of flooding, including flooding driven by climate change. The first thing that was needed was a source of funding. In the 2020 legislative session Virginia passed the Clean Economy Act and it was signed into law in July 2020. Amongst other things the legislation had the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional cap-and-invest program for the electric sector in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

RGGI is a carbon-trading/ cap program that is already in place in ten New England states. The RGGI reduces carbon emissions from fuel fired power plants by putting a price on carbon. According to Deputy Secretary Saks, joining RGGI will create nearly $100 million in revenue each year. This money does not appear out of thin air, the actual source of the RGGI revenue will be increased power rates since the cost of the carbon allowances is part of the rate base for electricity and will be passed onto consumers. 

The Clean Economy Act created the Community Flood Preparedness Fund to invest the RGGI carbon fees into flood protection for vulnerable residents in Virginia, and energy efficiency gains for low-income residents (to mitigate the increased costs of power to low-income residents). The first round of Applications are due by 4 p.m. on Sept. 3, 2021.They will begin collecting the next round of applications within days.

The fund will prioritize projects that are in concert with local, state and federal floodplain management standards, local resilience plans and the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan- that is a lot of regulatory coordination to navigate. Yet, the fund hopes to utilize existing infrastructure to put together  projects. The fund can be used for communities to complete vulnerability assessments and develop and implement action-oriented approaches to bolster flood preparedness and resilience. However, the fund cannot be used to pay for the management and tracking of the expenditures. 

The from DCR following conditions apply to the use of moneys allocated from the fund:

1. Localities shall use money primarily for  implementing flood prevention and protection projects and studies in areas that are subject to recurrent flooding as confirmed by a locality-certified floodplain manager.
2. Moneys in the fund may be used to mitigate future flood damage and to assist inland and coastal communities across the commonwealth that are subject to recurrent or repetitive flooding.
3. No less than 25% of the moneys disbursed from the fund each year shall be used for projects in low-income geographic areas.
4. Priority shall be given to projects that implement community-scale hazard mitigation activities that use nature-based solutions to reduce flood risk.