Vermont law tightens river‑corridor rules; DEC to map, educate and write rules ahead of 2028 general permit

At a Jan. 29 meeting of the Natural Resources & Energy Committee, Lauren Oates, director of external affairs for The Nature Conservancy of Vermont, told members that Vermont’s mapped FEMA floodplain does not capture the river‑corridor, side‑to‑side movement of rivers that causes the majority of the state’s flood damage.

"A river corridor ... is the flooding that takes place when a river moves from side to side," Oates said, distinguishing that erosive, corridor flooding from the inundation ("bathtub") flooding FEMA typically maps.

Oates said erosive, corridor flooding accounts for roughly 80 percent of flood‑related damages in Vermont and that relying only on FEMA's 100‑year floodplain understates risk in many towns. She said Vermont taxpayers are paying more than $30 million for flood‑related public infrastructure repairs and that the state's patchwork of local and federal rules has allowed development in hazardous corridor areas.

Act 121 (Vermont’s Flood Safety Act), passed last year and described by Oates at the committee meeting, adds provisions that explicitly address river corridors alongside other flood‑safety topics such as floodplains, wetlands and dams. Oates…