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New Philosophies Managing floods is a highly dynamic activity im- pacted by climate, politics and economics, Structural flood control was altered dramatically when the Reagan administration shifted a greater portion of project costs to local and state governments, This cost. sharing change, also supported by the Bush and Clinton administrations, reduced the federal share of funding for large projects, The massive 1993 flood on the Mississippi River - the most flood-confrolled river in the world - also aflected traditional flood control by adding momen. A. flooded !)('ar orchard. turn to nonstructural floodplain management. Nonstructural measures apply floodplain manage. ment principles, such as creating greenbelts to absorb overflow to prevent the need for engineered structures to control floods, In 1993, more than 6 million acres along the upper Mississippi and its major tributaries were flooded, causing more than $15 billion in damage, Following the floods, Presi- dent Clinton appointed Gerald E, Galloway, brigadier general of the U,S, Army, to chair the Interagency Floodplain Management Review Committee, The committee, which included federal engineers and physical, social and biological scientists, released a 11 comprehensive report, known as the Galloway Report, which recommended major revisions to management of floodplains in the United States. The Galloway Report, formally known as Sharing the Challenge: Ftoodptain Management into the 21st Century, concluded that floods are natural repetitive phenomena. It recommended improving coordination among federal, state and local flood control agencies and urged that environmental, economic and social costs and benefits be factored into flood manage- ment decisions, It pointed out the need to share the financial risk of urban and agricultural floodplain development equally among all levels of government and citizens: many local governments and private citizens assume the federal government will protect them and provide restitution, The Galloway Report also recommended enacting a floodplain manage- ment model, increasing participation in the national flood insurance system and pursuing non structural floodplain management practices. The recommendations were based on the report's key finding that loss of wetlands and upland cover in the Mississippi River Basin, and modification of the landscape by flood control and land use practices significantly increased runoff and adversely impacted ecosystem diversity, The Galloway Report also revealed that the existing flood control system helped prevent billions more in damages in 1993, Although local levees did not hold up, it noted that the discrepancy between the durability of federal and non.federallevees exposed a critical lack of coordi. nation among federal, sfate, local and tribal govern- ments, Approximately 90 percent of federally constructed levees were not breached, but 70 percent of non-federal and privately constructed levees broke or were overtopped. The differences between federal or project levees and nonproject levees were once again highlighted by 1997 New Year's deluge in northern and central California, Both federal and nonproject levees breached, but there were many more along the latter. The unintentional breaks in Corps' project levees occurred primarily along sections scheduled for repair. Levee rehabilitafion had been delayed in part because of funding constraints. The key problem with nonproject levees is that the foundation and integrity of many - particularly private levees that protect mainly farmland - are unknown and a cause for concern. Corps levees on the other hand, though not fail-safe, are constructed and repaired according to requisite standards, There were more than 20 breaks along private levees along