By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
County commissioners court members recently heard a presentation on work being done to update the county’s hazard mitigation plan.
Rowland Garza, the county’s emergency management coordinator, introduced the presentation and noted the hazard mitigation plan must be updated every five years to keep the county eligible for grant funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for projects to mitigate identified hazards.
Garza said, “As the court is aware, we’ve entered into a partnership with Middle Rio Grande Development Council of Government to assist us in developing our plan. It’s a five-year plan. As the court knows, our plan expired in 2016, so this is serving as more of an update to our plan. I’ve been working with the H20 partners, which is a firm that Middle Rio Grande has contracted with to help us write the plan. We’re in the planning phases of this particular plan at the moment,” Garza said.
He said there was a public workshop on the plan, which was held Sept. 26 at the county library, adding more public meetings on the plan will be scheduled in the future.
He said Stevie-Ann O’Donnell, with H20 Partners was joining the meeting via Zoom and would give an overview of the work done so far.
“The big thing from this is, it would be good idea to get a consensus from the court on the projects we want to proceed with in our hazard mitigation plan, to identify which projects we want to proceed with, projects that are going to be feasible and realistic in terms of mitigating (hazards) over the next five years, flood control, flood mitigation, nature-based projects, vulnerable populations, anything that’s going to impact our community that will prevent loss of life or property in the event of an emergency,” Garza said.
County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton asked, “It’s my understanding the city is doing a flood plan right now?”
“From what I understand, the city has a flood control plan, and now they’re looking at feasibility of actually facilitating some projects to get those projects done and the costs associated with that,” Garza replied.
Owens noted the city has hired an engineering firm to assist it with the drainage projects. The county judge said he and other county officials have also met with representatives of the same company.
Owens said some of the properties the city is eyeing as part of its overall flood control plan lie outside the city limits, adding it’s his understanding the city has not yet contacted those property owners.
“It would be nice if they took care of their stuff in the city limits and then contacted us on what we could do outside the city limits. One of the projects in Precinct 2, the (flood water) retention system that they’ve come up with, in the Lowe Estates, above the Lowe Estates, that landowner’s going to freak out. He’s not going to give up a bunch of his land to dig a hole,” Owens said.
Garza then invited O’Donnell to speak about the hazard mitigation plan.
O’Donnell, who is the mitigation outreach specialist for H20 Partners, said the plan for Val Verde County is one of nine plans that will be developed for governmental entities in the region.
She said a tentative draft plan may be presented to the county in June 2025.
O’Donnell first reviewed the purpose of the hazard mitigation plan.
O’Donnell told the court, “The purpose of the plan is really just enhancing the resiliency of Val Verde County. The city of Del Rio is participating as a separate entity. That means they will also have their own project list. They will be able to go out for FEMA mitigation grants on their own, and they will not have to rely on the county to go after grants on their behalf, so you both will have your own project lists plan. In addition to that, you both will be able to go after mitigation grants on your own terms over the next five years.”
She said as Garza mentioned, H20 and the county stakeholders are updating the 2011-2016 hazard mitigation plan.
“There are about 23 actions listed in that plan that I can go over with you guys now or you guys can take that off (on)line (sources), just to determine whether or not those projects have been completed, and if you haven’t, that would eventually be your starting projects list. If you still want to implement those projects, we can carry them over or we can start from scratch in plan development,” she said.
“The whole point of this plan is not only to assess your risks for natural hazards and human-caused hazards in the plan, but to identify viable, cost-effective projects to reduce the overall effects of these hazards and then leverage FEMA grant funds,” O’Donnell added.
She went over a list of FEMA grant programs and incentives for which the county is eligible. She said those programs are available to entities with a FEMA-approved hazard mitigation plan.
Those programs include FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, Flood Mitigation Assistance, Hazard Mitigation Grant Post Fire and the High Hazard Potential Dam Grant. She added there are other state and federal grant programs available to help pay for the projects the county will outline in its mitigation plan.
O’Donnell then displayed a graphic showed “the hazards that are being assessed for your region.”
Those hazards include “natural” hazards like dam failure, extreme heat, tornadoes, hurricanes/tropical storms, drought, floods, lightning, thunderstorms/wind, hail, winter storms, wildfires and earthquakes and “manmade” hazards like infectious disease, cyber attacks, mass migration, hazardous materials and terrorism.
O’Donnell noted, “For every hazard outlined, we do have to have a project for it. I don’t want you worrying about that when you submit your final project list to us. We will make sure the FEMA requirement is met. If you aren’t meeting it based on the projects you submit to us, we will go ahead and let you know what we are recommending to meet those requirements, and you’ll have the option to approve it or deny it.”
She added there is no database for how many incidents of the five listed human-caused hazards – infectious disease, cyber attacks, mass migration, hazardous materials and terrorism – have occurred in the county, so she will work with Garza as to how those hazards have impacted the county.
“Where we’re at in the project is working with you on identifying projects. Reviewing your previous project list, you guys have a pretty decent project scope outline, so it’s going to be more you reviewing those 23 projects and telling us which ones you want to carry forward and which ones you want to remove and anything in addition.
“You talked about the city doing a flood study, you talked about expanding a retention system, those are all things we want to make sure we capture for what’s currently going on in the county that may be eligible for grant funds,” O’Donnell said.
She told the court a “mitigation action” is defined as “a long-term, sustainable action that is going to reduce the impacts of these natural hazards on property as well as loss of life.”
“They range in four different types of actions, which are local plans and regulations, structure and infrastructure projects, natural systems protection projects and education and awareness projects,” O’Donnell said.
She said local plans and regulations could include actions by government authorities, policies or codes that influence the way land and buildings are developed and built and could include land use ordinances, subdivision regulations, green space development requirements, building codes and enforcement, the National Flood Insurance Program community rating system, open space preservation and stormwater management regulations and master plans.
She said structure and infrastructure projects could include acquisition and elevation of structures in flood-prone areas, utility undergrounding, structural retrofits, floodwalls and retaining walls, detention and retention structures, culverts, graywater recycling systems and safe rooms.
Natural systems protection projects could include sediment and erosion control, stream corridor restoration, forest management, conservation easements, wetland restoration and preservation, land conservation, greenways and rain gardens, she said.
O’Donnell told the court that there are also grant funds available for local entities to spend on education and awareness. Programs under this category include radio or television ads, websites with maps and information, real estate disclosure, presentations to school groups and neighborhood organizations, mailings to residents in hazard-prone areas, the StormReady program and floodwise communities.
After O’Donnell finished, Owens told the court, “If you don’t mind, if you (commissioners) will get us a list of projects within your area that you think we need to tackle so we can go ahead and get them to her, and then we’ll bring this back (to the court).”
Owens asked the commissioners if they had any questions, and when none did, he moved on to the next agenda item.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
