OLYMPIA - For Snohomish County beef raiser Jerry Labish, it's thumbs up for a recently passed bill that allows farmers across the state to replace or repair homes destroyed by flood, fire, or other types of disaster - even if those homes were located on a floodway.
The legislation, Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1963, sponsored by Rep. John Koster, R-Monroe, sailed through both houses without opposition and was signed by the governor last week.
Among those testifying in favor of the bill were representatives from the Snohomish County Cattlemen's Association, the Washington State Grange, the Snohomish County Council, the Washington Cattlemen's Association, the Department of Ecology, the state's Farm Bureau, and the Washington State Association of Counties.
No one testified against it.
The bill went into effect as soon as the governor signed it last week.
Just in the nick of time, too - as Labish's own experience can confirm.
Earlier this year, he and 50 other county farmers whose houses are in river floodways received letters informing them they were about to lose their flood insurance.
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Requirements of the bill Here are some of the stipulations included in the bill:
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The reason: The Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, was pressuring Snohomish County - the only county in the state that allowed farm homes to be rebuilt on floodways - to comply with state law.
The agency was exerting that pressure by threatening the county that if it didn't pass an ordinance to change floodway regulations to reflect state law, it would rescind federal flood insurance for more than 1,000 county residents.
To make matters worse, FEMA gave the county an April 15th deadline to come into compliance with state law.
"We felt devastated," said Labish, echoing the thoughts of his fellow farmers in the county. "We knew the value of our farms would go down if there were no homes on them." Even more frustrating was the fact that none of the farmhouses involved, many of which were built generations ago, had ever been damaged or destroyed by floods.
But when Labish and some of the other farmers turned to their banks for advice or help, they could get no answers.
"They weren't sympathetic to us at all," he said.
As for the urgency of finding a solution to this problem, Labish was quick to explain some of the realities that go with farming.
"Can you live 10 miles away from your farm and still keep an eye on your livestock?" he asked. "It's almost impossible to farm and not be there.
Farming's a 24-hour-a-day job." He also pointed out that the county, like other counties across the state, wants to protect farmland.
"Without people being able to live on their farms, there won't be many farmers left," he said.
Rep. Koster quickly saw that something had to be done and began working on legislation to fix the problem.
"Folks have lived for generations in homes on these so-called floodways and never even had water close to them, let alone the problem of being destroyed by floods," he said. "Big government was stepping in and telling farmers they couldn't rebuild, even if it was a fire or another circumstance that damaged their home. Those homes are their investments, and the farms are where they make their living." Meanwhile, the reworked version of the original bill changed the definition of farmhouse to eliminate the requirement that commercial farm operations make up the farm owner's or occupant's principal livelihood.. That was in recognition of the fact that many small farmers cannot make a living with farming and have to support farming with other occupations.
The legislation also calls for DOE to assess residential structures other than farmhouses that are damaged or destroyed and and recommend whether those structures can be repaired or replaced.
In short, the new legislation basically brings state law into compliance with Snohomish County code - not the other way around.
Karla Fullerton, executive director of the state's Cattlemen's Association, said members of her group are glad the legislation passed and hope there will be money in the state's budget to rework the county's floodway maps so they're more in tune with actual conditions on the ground.
"Even though they're in a floodway according to the maps, many farmers' and producers' homes have never been flooded," she said.
State and local flood plain management regulations are based on areas designated as "special flood hazard areas" on Federal Emergency Management Agency maps provided for the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968.
In celebrating the bill's passage, County Executive Bob Drewel noted that farming is important to the region's economy, and he pointed out that the county has protected farmland through its comprehensive plan. For him the floodway bill marks a small step toward protecting the people who work the land.
Linda Johnson, legislative official for the state's Farm Bureau, underscored how the new legislation fits in with public policy regarding ag preservation: You don't take the farmer off farmland," she said.
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