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Urban Flooding Awareness Act

June 2, 2015
Speeches

WASHINGTON -- Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) spoke on the House floor urging Congress to address increased flooding in urban communities.

Below is a video and transcript of the speech.

Thank you Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker,

As members of Congress continue to debate whether or not climate change is real, Americans are paying the price.

My climate doubters that I serve with, I remind them that there are over 200 peer-reviewed scientific studies that conclude that climate change is real and that man contributes to it.

And there are zero peer-reviewed scientific studies that say the opposite.

But climate change often brings images to mind of melting ice caps and rising sea levels, but the effects of climate change are being felt everyday by people around the country.

Climate change is causing even more destructive storms, which when combined with our aging infrastructure is resulting in cities around the country being pummeled by urban flooding.

A little more than two years ago residents in my district endured their second 100 year flood in a mere three years.

100 year storms means that there is a one percent chance that a storm of that magnitude will happen every year.

But folks in Chicago are experiencing these storms with greater intensity and frequency.

The morning after the rains bombarded Chicago in 2013, I visited numerous community members and their homes.

The damage I saw was devastating. Thousands of homes and businesses flooded,

Tons of carpeting, furniture, and memories ruined,

Businesses shattered and entrepreneurs' dreams crushed, along with millions of dollars in damages.

Throughout the region we saw the closure of schools, libraries, and even hospitals were forced to relocate patients.

That kind of devastation cannot be ignored.

Our constituents cannot be ignored.

In Chicago, over the past century, we have seen countless storms that cause pipes to back up into homes and dump upwards of 1.5 inches of rain in a single day.

What's more, rains of more than 2.5 inches a day are expected to increase another 50 percent in the next 20 years.

The National Climate Assessment, released by the Obama Administration last year, predicted that the frequency and intensity of the Midwest's heaviest downpours will more than double over the next one hundred years.

That means even more trouble for our nation's already deteriorating infrastructure and the cities around the country that rely on that infrastructure to keep them safe.

Storm drains are outdated, sewers are inadequate, and families are at risk.

Whether it's because of flooded pipes, or the lack of permeable surfaces in our cities, our constituents are paying the prices.

Thousands of households in America are affected every year by urban flooding; yielding catastrophic economic, environmental and social damage in some of our country's largest cities.

Basements with water damage decrease property values by an estimated 10 to 25 percent.

But the impacts don't end there. Chronically damp houses can cause respiratory problems and higher insurance costs.

Additionally, almost 2 out of 5 small businesses cannot open after experiencing a flooding disaster.

Urban flooding erodes streams and riverbeds, degrades the quality of our drinking water and the health of our aquatic ecosystems.

It's time we come with national response to this growing problem. That's why I'm proud to introduce the Urban Flooding Awareness Act.

This legislation will finally create a definition of urban flooding to be used when designing flood maps and require a first of its kind study to analyze the costs associated with urban flooding and develop solutions.

It would also help us better protect downstream communities from the flooding impacts of development in upstream areas.

Existing regulatory and policy mechanisms are not adequate for this task. It's time we develop new strategies.

By identifying the most effective and economical remedies to urban flooding, we are better preparing our communities to defend themselves against the devastation caused by increasingly intense weather.

And investing in real solutions to this problem now is the only way to avoid higher costs down the road.

We need to learn from our successes and investigate innovative new strategies for funding crucial programs that eliminate flood risk and damage.

Our cities need the best tools available if they are going to survive this era of super-sized storms.

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Issues:Energy / Environment