Government agencies across Kentucky, including the Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District, will lose millions of dollars in disaster mitigation and infrastructure funding, officials said, as FEMA moves to end the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program and cancel applications from previous years.
FEMA announced the end of the BRIC program on April 4, as floodwaters inundated large areas of the state. On the same day, all 120 counties in Kentucky were declared disaster areas.
In an email to MSD and other applicants, a state grants manager stated that the termination of the BRIC program would result in the loss of more than $9 million for previously selected projects, which would “directly affect Jeffersontown, Falmouth, Franklin County, Powell County, Louisville MSD, Floyd County, Boyd County, Salt Lick, and (Kentucky Emergency Management).”
Several of these communities experienced historic flooding in the week following the program’s termination. Floodwaters killed a Franklin County child on the same day the program was terminated, and some nearby communities were evacuated in the days that followed as the Kentucky River surged into Frankfort.
Applicants were also informed that Kentucky had nearly $23 million in pending applications for the same program that would no longer be considered.
BRIC was established by Congress during the first Trump administration through the bipartisan Disaster Recovery Reform Act and was designed to support “states, local and territorial governments, and Tribal Nations as they work to reduce their hazard risk,” according to FEMA.
However, in a news release on April 4, the agency described the program as “yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program… more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.”
MSD officials said the funding cut would make it difficult for Louisville and other communities to prepare for and recover from flooding and other disasters, which are becoming more severe as Kentucky’s climate changes.
“It’s devastating,” said Stephanie Laughlin, MSD’s assistant director of infrastructure planning.
“Much of our flood protection system is 70 years old and in urgent need of repair,” she told the crowd. “FEMA funding, this BRIC funding in particular, was a path to deliver those improvements to the community sooner, especially in a time when our capital budget is so strained.”
Other officials and experts have spoken out against the program’s cancellation, citing funding concerns for state and local governments across the country.
“This move will inevitably result in greater loss of life, property damage, and increased expenditures at the local, state, and federal levels,” wrote former FEMA official David Maurstad in a post for the Association of State Floodplain Managers. “The claim that BRIC is wasteful, ineffective, or politically motivated is not only misguided — it is wholly unsupported by data, evidence, or thoughtful analysis.”
Louisville flood infrastructure funding cut
Laughlin said that among the canceled BRIC applications were two selected MSD projects in Jefferson County worth $750,000.
MSD was chosen — but not yet awarded — funding for planning and design to upgrade Louisville’s aging western flood pump station, which was constructed in 1952. A large number of local officials and organizations wrote letters of support for the project’s funding.
The proposed funding would have enabled “critical investments to mitigate the risk of flooding for more than 26,000 people in West Louisville communities, including Chickasaw, Park Duvalle, Parkland, Park Hill, and Winrose,” according to Lyndon Pryor, president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League.
“These neighborhoods have experienced profound and longstanding inequities,” according to Pryor. “They must be protected through projects that build climate resilience and ensure environmental justice.”
Another project involved analyzing a flood mitigation project at the Outer Loop, which included a detention basin in the Northern Ditch Watershed. This project also received widespread support from local stakeholders, including Mayor Craig Greenberg and Jefferson County Public Schools.
“With the increased frequency and intensity of storms exacerbated by climate change, we must make smart investments in new infrastructure to protect the lives and livelihoods of Louisvillians,” wrote JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio in a letter of support for the project, noting that it would help address flooding and could affect a dozen local schools.
“Wet Woods Creek in Northern Ditch is located in the south-central portion of Jefferson County and presents a flood risk for 46,607 residents in the watershed,” according to Mississippi State University. “Fifty-five homes in this watershed experience repeated losses, with damages as recent as 2006, 2009, 2013, 2015, and 2018.”
“We were trying to pursue every dollar we could for the community,” Laughlin told reporters. “This is definitely a hit. “A setback.”
