CHAPTER 3 MITIGATION STRATEGY 2013-2018 This section of the Plan provides the “blueprint” for Belmont County and participating municipalities to become less vulnerable to natural and technological hazards. It is based on the general consensus of the Belmont County Mitigation Planning Committee along with the findings of the Local Hazard, Risk and Vulnerability assessment. This section consists of the following subsections: • INTRODUCTION • GOALS AND OBJECTIVES UPDATE SUMMARY • COMMUNITY VALUES, HISTORIC AND SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS • FLOOD MITIGATION STRATEGY • SEVERE SUMMER STORMS MITIGATION STRATEGY • SEVERE WINTER STORMS MITIGATION STRATEGY • LANDSLIDE MITIGATION STRATEGY • TORNADO MITIGATION STRATEGY • TEMPERATURE EXTREMES MITIGATION STRATEGY • DAM FAILURE MITIGATION STRATEGY • MINE SUBSIDENCE MITIGATION STRATEGY • ALL-HAZARDS MITIGATION STRATEGY INTRODUCTION ____ _________ __ The intent of the Mitigation Strategy is to provide Belmont County and participating municipalities with the goals that will serve as the guiding principles for future mitigation policy and project administration, along with a list of proposed actions deemed necessary to meet those goals and reduce the impact of natural hazards. It is designed to be comprehensive and strategic in nature. The development of the strategy included a thorough review of natural hazards and identified policies and projects intended to not only reduce the future impacts of hazards, but also to help Belmont County and participating municipalities achieve compatible economic, environmental and social goals. The development of this section is also intended to be strategic, in that all policies and projects are linked to establish priorities assigned to specific departments or individuals responsible for their implementation and assigned target completion deadlines. Funding sources are identified that can be used to assist in project implementation. • Mitigation goals are general guidelines that explain what the County wants to achieve. Goals are usually expressed as broad policy statements representing desired long-term results. BELMONT COUNTY MULTI-JURISDICTIONAL HAZARD MITIGATION PLAN 2013-2018 Page 95 CHAPTER 3 MITIGATION STRATEGY 2013-2018 • Mitigation objectives describe strategies or implementation steps to attain the identified goals. Objectives are more specific statements than goals; the described steps are usually measurable and can have a defined completion date. • Mitigation Actions provide more detailed descriptions of specific work tasks to help the County and its municipalities achieve prescribed goals and objectives. Based on participation from the Belmont County Mitigation Planning Committee, the mitigation strategy was modified and updated. Objectives were clarified to better document roles and responsibilities. Completed actions were noted and deleted. New actions have been added to address particular hazards facing Belmont County and the consensus achieved in how to address those actions. The last step in updating the Mitigation Strategy is the creation of jurisdictionally specific Mitigation Action Plans (MAPs). The MAPs represent the key outcome of the mitigation planning process. MAPs include a prioritized list of proposed hazard mitigation actions (policies and projects) for Belmont County and its municipalities, including accompanying information such as those agencies or individuals assigned responsibility for their implementation, potential funding sources, estimated target date for completion, and a current status. The MAPs provide those individuals or agencies responsible for implementing mitigation actions with a clear roadmap that also serves as an important tool for monitoring progress over time. The collection of actions listed in each jurisdictions MAP also serves as an easily understood synopsis of activities for local decision makers. In preparing their own Mitigation Action Plan, each jurisdiction considered their overall hazard risk and capability to mitigate identified hazards, in addition to meeting the adopted countywide mitigation goals. Prioritizing mitigation actions for each jurisdiction was completed using FEMA’s STAPLEE methodology. The STAPLEE approach allows for a careful review of the feasibility of mitigation actions by using seven criteria. The criteria are described below: • S - Social • T - Technical • A - Administrative • P - Political • L - Legal • E - Economic • E - Environmental FEMA mitigation planning requirements indicate that any prioritization system used shall include a special emphasis on the extent to which benefits are maximized according to a cost-benefit review of the proposed projects. To do this in an efficient manner that is consistent with FEMA’s guidance on using cost-benefit review in mitigation planning, the STAPLEE method was adapted to include a higher weighting for two elements of the economic feasibility factor – Benefits of Action and Costs of Action. BELMONT COUNTY MULTI-JURISDICTIONAL HAZARD MITIGATION PLAN 2013-2018 Page 96 CHAPTER 3 MITIGATION STRATEGY 2013-2018 This method incorporates concepts similar to those described in Method C of FEMA 386-5: Using Benefit Cost Review in Mitigation Planning (FEMA, 2007). For the individual action plans, a STAPLEE score was calculated based on the number of favorable considerations that can be found on the STAPLEE document. Up to 23 considerations can be used to prioritize each action using this evaluation methodology. In order to ensure that a broad range of mitigation actions were considered, the Belmont County Mitigation Planning Committee analyzed a comprehensive range of specific mitigation actions for each hazard after it had completed the risk assessment. This helped to ensure that there was sufficient span and creativity in the mitigation actions considered. There are six categories of mitigation actions which Belmont County considered in developing its mitigation action plan. Those categories include: • Prevention: Government administrative or regulatory actions or processes that influence the way land and buildings are developed and built. These actions also include public activities to reduce hazard losses. Examples include planning, zoning, building codes, subdivision regulations, hazard specific regulations (such as floodplain regulations), capital improvement programs, and open-space preservation and stormwater regulations. • Property Protection: Actions that involve modifying or removing existing buildings or infrastructure to protect them from a hazard. Examples include the acquisition, elevation and relocation of structures, structural retrofits, flood-proofing, storm shutters, and shatter resistant glass. This category also includes insurance. • Public Education and Awareness: Actions to inform and educate citizens, elected officials, and property owners about potential risks from hazards and potential ways to mitigate them. Such actions include hazard mapping, outreach projects, library materials dissemination, real estate disclosures, the creation of hazard information centers, and school age / adult education programs. • Natural Resource Protection: Actions that, in addition to minimizing hazard losses also preserve or restore the functions of natural systems. These actions include sediment and erosion control, stream corridor restoration, forest and vegetation management, wetlands restoration or preservation, slope stabilization, and historic property and archeological site preservation. • Structural Project Implementation: Mitigation projects intended to lessen the impact of a hazard by using structures to modify the environment. Structures include stormwater controls (culverts); dams, dikes, and levees; and safe rooms. • Emergency Services: Actions that typically are not considered mitigation techniques but reduce the impacts of a hazard event on people and property. These actions are often taken prior to, BELMONT COUNTY MULTI-JURISDICTIONAL HAZARD MITIGATION PLAN 2013-2018 Page 97 CHAPTER 3 MITIGATION STRATEGY 2013-2018 during, or in response to an emergency or disaster. Examples include warning systems, evacuation planning and management, emergency response training and exercises, and emergency flood protection procedures. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES UPDATE SUMMARY ((2007-2012)__ ____ _________ __ The Mitigation Planning Committee reviewed the current plan, identified new information that needed to be included in the Plan update and incorporated it as required by state and federal guidelines. The planning committee was also tasked with collecting all accurate data from plan participants and provided outreach to the public and business stakeholders to ensure that everyone’s information is included in this Plan update. The following table is an update summary to the goals and objectives from the 2007 Belmont County Hazard Mitigation Plan conducted by the Belmont County Mitigation Planning Team on November 15, 2012. Table 3-1: 2007-2012 Goals and Objectives Update Goal Objective Defer Change Delete Note Reduce the potential for Reduce the probability of damage as a result of significant flood damage dam failures in Belmont as a result of dam failure X County Protect Belmont Increase public New goal and County’s agricultural awareness as to the objective will be re- assets from the negative agricultural effects of worded effects of a drought drought, as well as the X ramifications to the public water supply Develop methods for the This objective is an procurement of an action emergency water supply X Reduce the potential Educate the