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the end of the month.
At the second meeting, however, the FEMA spokesperson threw a bombshell on the table, according to
Dunstan. The agency, which is broken into 10 regions, was undertaking the remapping project on an area-by-area basis and the
American Bottom was near the top of the list. A map was being developed that would show the entire American Bottom as an
unprotected flood plain; a draft would be ready in September and it would become official before the end of 2008. This news
shocked both Dunstan and Costello. The entire American Bottom, a 175-square mile area ranging from Alton down past the
Jefferson Barracks Bridge and as far east as Illinois Rte. 157, would be categorized as an unprotected flood plain
Costello said he voiced strong opposition - not to the information itself, but to the way it was to be rolled out.
"We know we need to move forward." Costello said. "We know that there are deficiencies in our area and we cannot turn our
heads
to that fact. What we have to do is assess what the deficiencies are. The people who live in the area have a right to know.
The businesses in the area have a right to know what the level of flood protection is and the levee commissioners have a
right to know not only the condition of their levees, but of the entire system. Because, if you have a breach as we saw in
'93 in one part of the levee, it doesn't make any difference; everyone is affected. What we have to do is look at the
overall condition of our flood protection."
According to Costello, the problem arises from the piece-meal fashion in
which FEMA intends to implement the flood maps. Costello said he told the FEMA representative that he didn't have a problem
with moving forward in all 10 regions, but that the agency should not implement the maps until it could be done at the same
time nationally, so that everyone in the country is affected in the same way.
"I went back to Washington and began a
discussion with some of my colleagues who would be affected as well," Costello said.
Dunstan agreed with Costello's
approach. Dunstan said that the FEMA representative told him that problems existed on the Missouri side of the metro St.
Louis area, but that it would probably be four to five years before those maps were implemented.
"That gives Missouri
four to five years to fix their problems while we have about 12 months to get ours fixed," Dunstan said. "All we want is to
be on a level playing field. We want everyone to be treated the same, nationally. I don't have any trouble with FEMA having
our maps available and to continue to work on the maps from other areas, but they need to make the declaration nationally
where everyone is on the same level playing field at the same time."
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Costello has laid out a three-pronged approach to
dealing with the problem and he has asked the East-West Gateway Council of Governments to coordinate the efforts. One, he
said, is to make everyone aware of what's going on. Two is to have the local governments working with East-West Gateway and
others to develop a plan as to how they're going to correct the deficiencies so that they can meet the Corps' and FEMA's
standards. He emphasized that that should be done in a collective way to develop a strategic plan to correct the
deficiencies throughout the three systems from Alton down to Monroe County.
"Three," Costello said, "is for me to go to
Washington and put together a plan as to how we're going to address the issue of implementation. And it's my judgment that
these maps should not be implemented one region at a time, but that they should be implemented nationally at the same time.
Secondly, I believe that if there is a good faith effort on the part of a region or a levee district to correct its
deficiencies, there should be sufficient time given to that levee district - as long as progress is being made. People who
live in the area should not be penalized. There should be sufficient time for them to correct the deficiencies before
homeowners and businesses have to buy expensive flood insurance," he added.
Dunstan said he thinks the same approach
should be taken as was used to protect Scott Air Force Base from closure under the Base Realignment and Closure process. He
said he was going to seek to get the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois involved to coordinate the flood protection
mapping effort, just as it did successfully with Scott AFB. In that effort, the Leadership Council raised money from Madison
and St. Clair counties along with contributions from private individuals and companies and hired a team of lobbyists to
press the issue in Washington D.C.
"Madison County is willing to put money forward like we did for the BRAC when we
fought the closure of Scott Air Force Base," said Dunstan. "Our county is willing to step up to the plate and do the same
type of procedure here."
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