The Chemung County Legislature passed a resolution at its regular meeting on June 13, 2011 to asking Congress for help in protecting local property owners from having to buy unnecessary flood insurance. There are 29 miles of levees in the Chemung Watershed that were built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that have not been certified and unless they are, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will not recognize them on the updated flood maps.
The resolution asks Congress to:
Enact measures that would reduce potential liability in levee certification.
Make state environmental officials and/or the Army Corps responsible cor certifying the levees and floodwalls.
Delay a FEMA update of the flood maps until the levees are accredited.
Chemung County Legislator Rodney J. Strange says the potential impact on residents of his district could be devastating. “If these levees are not certified, hundreds of residents in the 15th District could be forced to by expensive flood insurance who have never needed it before. The levees are not only the ones along the Chemung River, but also those that run along Seeley Creek. The result of this would be a financial hardship on district residents and we need to fight to get these levees certified.”