Senate bill aims for ‘fire safe’ zoning, building standards
Posted on November 29th, 2007By Dan Berman
Greenwire: After another round of destructive Southern California wildfires, a Senate appropriator wants state and local governments to straighten building standards in fire-prone areas.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, wants the National Institute of Standards and Technology to create a model “fire safe” ordinance for communities within the wildland-urban interface (WUI), including suggested standards for water supplies, building materials, defensible space and vegetation management.
In order to get communities to play ball, Feinstein’s bill (S. 2390) would give them more money from the federal government when fires do come. Currently, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reimburses 75 percent of the firefighting and emergency costs of state and local governments, but that would go up to 90 percent for those entities that participate in the new ordinance.
Feinstein’s bill also would authorize the Forest Service and Interior Department to offer $50 million in grants for fire-safe practices, create a $25 million grant program to help communities implement the ordinance and educate planners on fire-resistant zoning and home construction, and provide $15 million for states to update fire hazard maps.
While previous bills after wildfires — including the 2003 Healthy Forests Restoration Act — have focused on hazardous fuels reduction, Feinstein’s bill indicates a change in momentum and direction, said Jaelith Hall-Rivera, wildfire policy analyst for the Wilderness Society.
“She’s going in the right direction, broadening away from just looking at one thing and covering a lot of different areas,” Hall-Rivera said. “We already have laws on the books about fuels treatments and getting that moving on the federal level.”
Federal officials have repeatedly cited development in the WUI as a cause behind the skyrocketing fire suppression costs, as it takes more manpower and resources to fight fires where homes and property are threatened. About 200,000 homes were built in the Southern California wildland-urban interface between the 2003 and 2007 wildfire events, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey told Feinstein’s subcommittee during a San Diego field hearing Tuesday.
Arizona state forester Kirk Rowdabaugh, president of the National Association of State Foresters, said landowners in the West are improving the way they handle vegetation around their property.
“Clearly private landowners recognize they need to take personal responsibility,” Rowdabaugh said. “There is a general appreciation there are limits on what the best firefighters in the world can do.”
Hazardous-fuels treatments
Forest Service officials touted the success of fuels treatments that slowed the spread of wildfires in the San Bernardino area, and Rowdabaugh said federal land managers still have a responsibility to ensure their lands don’t bring fires to other areas.
“Any time the federal government is unable to control or mange fires on the federal estate and they end up damaging neighboring resources that’s a real tragedy,” Rowdabaugh said. “The federal government’s looking for something to do. Managing their lands so they can manage fires before they damage neighboring property would be a huge advantage.”
Earlier this month, Congress included $500 million for emergency fire suppression, risk reduction, and recovery needs for this year’s fire season with the Defense Department spending bill (E&ENews PM, Nov. 6).
The Forest Service, Interior Department and Natural Resources Conservation Service spent $300 million treating 275,000 acres in Southern California since 2003, Rey said. An additional 75,000 acres were treated on state and private lands through federal grants.
Meanwhile, two House Republicans have introduced bills focusing on hazardous fuels reduction.
Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho) proposed legislation (H.R. 4245) to allow the Forest Service to issue categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act for hazardous fuels projects on federal lands in the WUI that pose a risk to adjacent lands.
The “Saving American Lives and Investing in Protecting Land And Nature Act,” or SALI PLAN, would not allow categorical exclusions in wilderness areas or wilderness study areas, according to Sali’s office.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), whose rural San Diego home burned in the 2003 Cedar fire, has a bill designed to ensure that private property owners and local communities can clear brush and create fire breaks.
“Eliminating federal restrictions that prevent property owners from taking these steps, including the removal of brush and other accelerants for the purpose of creating fire breaks, will go a long way in reducing damage and property loss in the future,” Hunter said upon introducing the measure.
Meanwhile, Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), the new ranking member of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, called on fellow lawmakers to pass legislation to address the bark beetle infestation in Colorado.
“These beetles have destroyed our forests leaving behind thousands of dying trees waiting for a fateful lightening strike or errant ember from a fire to set them ablaze,” Allard said.
S.D. needs more fire stations
In San Diego, the city and county need to build more fire stations, Feinstein said at Tuesday’s field hearing.
San Diego County is the largest one in California without a unified, county-wide fire department, and Feinstein said the city has “underfunded its fire services for years,” resulting in lower-than-average staffing levels and slow response times. For instance, the national standard for a fire department is to respond to emergency calls within five minutes at 90 percent of calls. San Diego responds to calls within five minutes only 47 percent of the time, the senator said.
“In this climate, again, of increasing wildfire, of expanding home subdivisions into patterns of Santa Ana winds and wildfire patterns, I think this deserves further attention,” Feinstein said.
Scott Peters, president of the San Diego City Council, noted voters twice rejected initiatives to increase a hotel tax to boost fire protection. Although one measure received 61 percent of the vote, California law requires a two-thirds majority for passage. “I’m not optimistic about the ability to raise major revenues,” Peters said.
“The third time might be the charm,” Feinstein responded, noting the city should consider an alternative funding plan, such as a bond issue.
“I think people now see there is a pattern,” Feinstein added. “This is not a one-time thing.”
Feinstein has introduced three additional bills related to last month’s wildfires:
- The “Mortgage and Rental Disaster Relief Act” to make mortgage and rental assistance available through FEMA for wildfire victims who still have to make their regular payments on top of paying for temporary housing. Aid would be limited to households with annual adjusted gross incomes of $100,000 or less in California.
- The “Disaster Rebuilding Assistance Act,” S. 2388, would increase aid for rebuilding and temporary housing from FEMA to $50,000 for qualified households, up from about $28,000.
- The “Managing Arson Through Criminal History (MATCH) Act,” S. 2387, would require states to create a registry of convicted arsonists in order to help law enforcement track offenders. Rep. Mary Bono (R-Calif.) introduced a similar bill in the House earlier this year.