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Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Commissioner Laura Bishop met virtually with area leaders, lawmakers, local mayors and a representative from the insurance industry to make a public appeal to the Minnesota legislature to approve a $2.9 million funding proposal that would help communities plan for extreme rain events and other impacts of climate change.
The meeting was held on Wednesday, March 24.
Featured speakers included Staples Mayor Chris Etzler; Sarah Hannigan, Whole Foods Co-op (Duluth); Chreyal Hills, Region Five Development Commission; Mark Kulda, Insurance Federation of Minnesota; and Duluth Mayor Emily Larson.
The cost of not preparing, said Bishop, “is simply too high to bear.”
She noted that many communities have aging stormwater systems and wastewater treatment plants designed for weather events of the past.
“In too many cases, our aging and inadequate water infrastructure can’t handle the more extreme weather we see today, causing local streets to flood, sewer systems to back up into homes and businesses, and inflicting millions of dollars in damages to public and private property,” Bishop said.
How often does the state receive extreme weather events?
Nationally, said Bishop, Minnesota ranks second only to California in extreme weather events.
Since 1998, Minnesotans have seen a 366 percent increase in homeowner insurance rates due to these extreme weather events, due primarily because of climate change, said Mark Kulda, Insurance Federation of Minnesota.
Because of increasingly intense wet weather, mega rain events, the flood risks for homes and businesses are four times higher today than a generation ago. These events overburden aging infrastructure and overwhelm inadequate water infrastructure and contribute to a statewide average of 150 wastewater overflows each year, including 24 incidents of partially treated wastewater being released in Lake County in 2019-2020.
In 1998, Minnesota had three major storms that caused $1.5 billion in insured losses. That was more money spent in one year than in the combined losses for the previous 40 years, said Kulda. And, he noted, over the last 20 years, Minnesota has had 26 weather events that each have cost more than $1 billion each.
“In 2010, Minnesota had 144 tornadoes and we led the nation in (tornado) touchdowns,” said Kulda. In 2011, a thirty minute hailstorm in the Twin Cities caused $3.6 billion in damages, the largest financial loss ever for a storm event in Minnesota, he said.
“Since 1998, the state has suffered larger, stronger and more frequent severe weather outbreaks,” said Kulda. “This is causing significant pressure on homeowner, auto and commercial insurance premiums.”
Whole Foods Co-op in Duluth lost 30 percent of its parking lot and lost a 25-foot retaining wall due to a 2012 flood, said General Manager Sarah Hannigan. “Our operation was disrupted for more than six months and we lost $350,000 in expenses,” she said, noting the business recovered financially. Updating water infrastructure in Minnesota will help avoid disruptions to business and essential services during extreme weather events, said Hannigan.
Staples Mayor Chris Etzler said his city was basically built on a swamp. The local school has classrooms flood even during regular rain events. Even though there has been some work to stop that kind of flooding, he said it has been a bandaid approach to the problem. To get the community to vote on raising their taxes for projects to prevent flood events, he said, was a tough sell. That’s why he strongly favored the proposal by the MPCA, surmising it would go a long way to solving future problems in small communities like Staples, because it would fund planning and allow experts and locals to work on solutions to mitigate mega-rains.
Duluth Mayor Emily Larson called the proposal by the MPCA a “think forward” solution-oriented idea that brings together communities and experts to mitigate future mega-rain events. “If you are a mayor and you aren’t thinking ahead, you are going backward,” she added.
Duluth averages 6.7 million tourists a year. When storm events like the one a few years ago ripped up the lake walk, it causes ripple effects across the business community and public in the surrounding northland, which are significant, noted Larson.
“Cities like Duluth that have experienced heavy rains and flooding have a first-hand understanding of the risks of more extreme weather and the high price tag of reactive infrastructure repairs,” said Mayor Larson, “Grant funding like this is needed to help communities find solutions for improving water infrastructure, mitigating risks, and preventing worse damage in years to come.”
Cheryl Hills, executive director, Region Five Development Commission, said the goal is to leverage local, state and federal agencies and monies to mitigate future storm events. “This is community preventive care at its best.”
Hills explained that weather experts had been warning the public for years about the effects of climate change and added, “We should have been planning like this for decades. Together, MPCA and local planning organizations like ours can help smaller, rural towns and under-resourced communities advance cost-effective, locally tailored solutions to prepare for our changing climate that leverage state support with federal infrastructure investments.”
“Being proactive rather than reactive makes good sense,” said Mayor Larson.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says that for one dollar spent on investment of resilience infrastructure, six dollars of benefit accrue to communities from avoided loss due to extreme rain, flooding and other disasters.
If the legislature grants the MPCA request, the agency will assist up to 15 communities each year. Still, Bishop noted the need is more significant than that, so this would just be a start for the program.
While it was noted that many cities, towns, Tribal Nations, and counties across the state have been preparing plans for extreme weather, more funds are needed to make sure each community can prepare. To that end, the MPCA is proposing to receive $1.358 million for the fiscal year 2022 and $1.605 million for fiscal year 2023. If granted from the state’s General Fund, MPCA would provide grants to communities for climate resiliency planning. Those grants could be used for climate risk assessment, planning, and pre-design to inform the development of bonding proposals to upgrade stormwater infrastructure. Currently, these needs aren’t eligible for bonding dollars.
Not only will resiliency planning save money on cleanup from events that now often result in damage to residents, businesses, and public property, it will save infrastructure and prevent drinking water supplies from being contaminated.
MPCA Commissioner Bishop asked that people who favor this plan should contact their legislators and ask them to approve it.
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