Fisheries ruling to protect salmon, steelhead, orcas also affects builders

By Les Blumenthal | Mcclatchy Newspapers • Published October 12, 2008

WASHINGTON – A ruling that development along dozens of rivers flowing from the Cascade Mountains to Puget Sound jeopardizes endangered salmon, steelhead and orcas could shape future construction in floodplains nationwide.

At the heart of the issue is the National Flood Insurance Program, which for 40 years has regulated river corridor development but paid scant attention to endangered species. That could change.

The "jeopardy opinion" from the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle, coupled with an injunction blocking development in Florida that threatens the habitat of the endangered Key deer, might force major changes in the federal flood insurance program.

"It takes the National Flood Insurance Program in a whole new direction," said Rollin Harper, a city planner for Everson in northwest Washington, where half the town of 2,200 is within the floodplain of the Nooksack River. Nationwide, 5 million people in 20,200 communities have flood insurance policies. Since 1978, the policies have paid out $31.6 billion in claims. Most homeowners' policies don't cover flood damage, yet mortgage lenders require flood insurance when lending for purchases of houses in floodplains. The national program underwrites the policies offered by private insurers.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency requires communities to adopt floodplain construction standards before it will underwrite flood policies.

In its opinion, the National Marine Fisheries Service said that those standards are too weak. It said continued development in the floodplains "jeopardized the continued existence" of the salmon, steelhead and orcas. The opinion involved Puget Sound chinook salmon, Puget Sound steelhead, Hood Canal chum salmon and the population of 100 or so orcas that roam the inland waters. Salmon are a staple source of food for orcas.

The river floodplains provide not just critical spawning habitat but also natural shade, cover and forage for juvenile salmon before they head downstream to the ocean.

In addition to suggesting a temporary construction moratorium, the opinion also recommended a series of "reasonable and prudent" alternatives, including buffer zones, naturalizing levees and mitigating the effects of development by restoring other habitats.