News

Webinar Series Recap: Preparing for Wildfire Season: Past, Present, and Future

In December 2018, the Puget Sound Climate Preparedness Collaborative (PSCPC) hosted a wildfire convening to illuminate the ways in which climate change affects the potential for wildfires west of the Cascades. The convening also shed light on strategies communities can take to reduce the risk and consequences of wildfire. More recently, more than 100 attendees joined the PSCPC webinar Preparing for Wildfire Season: Past, Present and Future. This webinar continued the conversation, with an emphasis on how wildfire preparedness has evolved since the 2017-18 wildfire smoke events that blanketed the Puget Sound region.

King County approves new Sea Level Rise Risk Area

King County Council recently approved a new Sea Level Rise Risk Area (SLR Risk Area) and related development regulations for Vashon and Maury Island. The SLR Risk area created an important opportunity to get ahead of expected shifts in coastal flooding as a result of sea level rise. The regulations were adopted in July 2020 as part of the mid-point update of the King County Comprehensive Plan.

The SLR Risk Area extends existing King County “base flood elevation” (BFE) building requirements landward of the coastal high hazard area, also known as the 100-year coastal floodplain. The County had previously required building at least three feet above BFE in the coastal high hazard area. The SLR Risk Area extends this building requirement until the land elevation is equivalent to three feet above BFE of the adjacent flood zone (see figure). This is roughly equivalent to preparing for two to three feet of sea level rise.

Member News

Member Highlight – City of Tacoma

By Kristin Lynett, Sustainability Officer and Beth Jarot, Resilient & Green Building Specialist

For a number of communities on the West Coast, treasured natural systems, the environment, and the health and safety of communities are threatened by climate change; Tacoma is no exception. Tacoma’s vulnerabilities include increasing temperatures, susceptibility to wildfire smoke, rising sea levels, declining snowpack, heavier rainstorms, changing streamflow, and more.

Tacoma’s Office of Environmental Policy & Sustainability (OEPS) was established in 2008 to develop, promote, and implement sustainable practices through education, community partnerships, and performance management. Programming, policy, and outreach focused on climate change mitigation and adaptation is at the heart of our work. The City has set aggressive carbon pollution reduction targets and is tracking progress on priority environmental actions.

Funding Opportunities

New FEMA Hazard Mitigation Funding Program Opens

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has issued two notices of funding opportunities related to hazard mitigation that may benefit climate preparedness activities in the Puget Sound region:

Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC).
Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA).

A total of $660M is available between the two opportunities, of which $500M is allocated to BRIC, and $160M is allocated to FMA. BRIC funding is allocated as follows: $33.6M for State/Territory allocations ($600K each), $20M for Tribes, and $446M for the national competition. Local governments seeking BRIC funding are considered "sub applicants" to states.

BRIC priorities include incentivizing public infrastructure projects, projects that mitigate risk to one or more lifelines, and projects that incorporate nature-based solutions, and adopting and enforcing modern building codes. Eligible projects for the FMA funding opportunity include project scoping, community and individual flood mitigation projects, and flood hazard mitigation planning.

An overview of the opportunities is available in this fact sheet. Full details are available online in the FEMA Notice of Funding Opportunity.

Pre-applications for BRIC and the FMA grants are due to the Washington State Emergency Management Division on September 8th, 2020. Full applications are due in January 2021.

Upcoming Events

Climate Summit 2020, October 7

Join Washington state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler and his guests for Climate Summit 2020.

Climate Summit 2020 is a free, online event, open to the public. In this format, attendees will be informed on the latest climate science, private sector best practices, and regulatory environments related to climate change. Click here to register.

Tools and Resources

Equitable Adaptation Legal & Policy Toolkit

The Georgetown Climate Center recently launched its Equitable Adaptation Legal & Policy Toolkit. The toolkit provides case examples and best practices of how cities have addressed social and racial inequities related to climate change, with the goal of supporting government and community-based organizations to address climate equity issues within their planning and initiatives. To download the complete document, click here.

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