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Connecticut River Valley Flood Control Compact

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Connecticut River Valley Flood Control Compact
Connecticut River bridge.jpg
Formation date: 1953
Member jurisdictions: 4
Issue(s): Water resources and flood control
Compact website

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The Connecticut River Valley Flood Control Compact is an interstate compact among Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont that allows the member states to cooperatively address flood control and water resource management issues in the Connecticut River basin and its tributaries. It also provides financial reimbursement to local jurisdictions for losses incurred by hosting the flood control facilities. The compact is congressionally consented.[1][2]

History

The Flood Control Act of 1936 granted the federal government jurisdiction over the country's rivers and tributaries, and the Flood Control Act of 1944 granted managerial oversight of water development projects to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The New England Division of the Corps maintains and operates flood control dams, dykes, pumping stations, and recreational facilities situated along the Connecticut River.[3][4]

Because the federal government assumes ownership of the land on which these facilities are sited, local governments lose the tax revenue the land would have otherwise generated. This fact in addition to other hardships faced by the communities that host the facilities, led to the adoption of the Connecticut River Valley Flood Control Compact in 1953.[4]

This compact, unlike the Jennings Randolph Lake Project Compact, does not transfer maintenance responsibility to the states. Instead, it provides a mechanism through which states that house flood control facilities are reimbursed by states further up-stream and down-stream that benefit from them.[4]

Governance

The compact established the Connecticut River Valley Flood Control Commission to enact the compact. It is composed of three commissioners from each member state and is tasked with:[4]

  • Promoting inter-state comity among and between the signatory states;
  • Assuring adequate storage capacity for impounding waters of the Connecticut River and its tributaries for the protection of life and property from floods;
  • Providing a joint or common agency through which the signatory states, while promoting protecting and preserving to each the local interest and sovereignty of the respective signatory states, may more effectively cooperate in accomplishing the object of flood control and water resources utilization in the basin of the Connecticut River and its tributaries.[4][5]

Text of the compact

The legislature of each member state passes the laws with certain modifications, but the core of the legislation remains the same.

Contact information

Connecticut River Valley Flood Control Commission
P.O. Box 511
Greenfield, MA 01302

Phone: 413-772-2020 x 204
Email: staff@crvfcc.org

See also

External links

Footnotes