(IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – The Iowa House passed a bill Wednesday to create and implement a statewide, 30-year resilience plan to protect state life, property and other assets in the event of a flood or other water-related disaster. Rep. John Wills, R-Spirit Lake, said the legislation was a “visionary bill” that “redefines” how the state protects itself from “floods, droughts and shifting water supplies.” “This bill is something that should have been done 30 years ago, but it wasn’t,” Wills said. “The next best time to do it is today.” House File 2511 would require the Iowa Flood Center to draft the plan and provide periodic updates.

The goal of the state resiliency plan – per the bill text – is to protect Iowa’s “critical” and “regionally significant” assets. These include transportation assets, evacuation routes, critical facilities, natural, cultural and historic resources in an area.  The state resiliency plan would also require a statewide risk assessment and prioritized lists of ongoing and planned resiliency projects in the state.   Wills said the bill mandates a “proactive” approach to resiliency and breaks the cycle of the state reacting to disasters after the fact. He emphasized that the bill would prioritize voluntary conservation and compliance strategies and that the resiliency plan was focused on flooding and not water quality.

In a Feb. 4 subcommittee hearing, the bill, then numbered as House File 2158, was supported by environmental groups in the state, some of which noted that flooding events seem to have increased in frequency in the state.  Nick Laning, speaking on behalf of the Iowa Emergency Management Association in the subcommittee hearing, suggested the plan might be better completed by the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, where similar plans are developed and the department is already adept at interactions with federal agencies.  Amber Markham, speaking on behalf of The Nature Conservancy, said the group supported the legislation and specifically was in favor of implementing “natural infrastructure” like wetlands to help curb flooding.

No group registered against the bill. A companion version of the bill was introduced in the Senate and advanced from a subcommittee, but was not heard in a committee meeting prior to the legislative “funnel” deadline. On the floor, the bill was amended to change the due date of the report from 2027 to 2028 and to move the final destination of the plan to the state homeland security department. The amendment also specified that risk reduction strategies would be voluntary to protect property rights.

The bill passed unanimously and was sent to the Senate.