Category A Debris Removal in Public Assistance

Debris removal — clearing, hauling, reducing and disposing of what a disaster leaves behind — is Category A, one of the two kinds of emergency work that FEMA's Public Assistance program funds. FEMA describes the rules in Chapter 7 of its Public Assistance Program and Policy Guide (PAPPG), which is the main source for this page; the underlying authority is Section 407 of the Stafford Act and FEMA's regulations in Title 44 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

The theme that runs through the chapter is that debris removal is eligible when it is in the public interest, and that where the debris sits, who removes it and how the work is recorded all shape what FEMA reimburses.

The public-interest test

FEMA's regulations describe debris removal as being in the public interest when it is necessary to deal with an immediate threat to lives, public health and safety; to deal with an immediate threat of significant damage to improved public or private property; to support the economic recovery of the community as a whole; or to clear substantially damaged structures from property acquired through a FEMA hazard mitigation program so the land can be put to open-space or similar uses. FEMA's guide reads the economic-recovery basis narrowly — typically large commercial areas where much of a community's commercial sector was affected.

What counts as debris is broad: vegetation, construction and demolition material, sand, mud and silt, rocks, appliances, and vehicle and vessel wreckage, among other things. Snow is not debris under FEMA's guide; snow-related work is treated as a Category B emergency protective measure when the declaration authorizes it.

Where removal tends to be eligible

As a rule, FEMA's guide treats debris that the declared incident left on improved public property and public rights-of-way, including federal-aid roads, as eligible for removal. When a state, local, tribal or territorial government authorizes residents to move incident-related debris from their homes to the curb, removing that curbside debris is also eligible, within limits the guide describes; debris from commercial property placed at the curb is not. For private nonprofit applicants, eligible debris removal is confined to debris associated with an eligible facility.

The guide also names places where removal is not eligible, among them federally maintained navigable waterways (other federal agencies hold those responsibilities), agricultural land, and natural, unimproved land. Materials from the construction or renovation of private structures are not eligible either.

Several kinds of debris carry their own conditions in the guide. Hazardous trees, limbs and stumps are generally eligible only when the incident damaged them and they pose an immediate threat; pruning, trimming and landscaping are not eligible. Debris in waterways is eligible in the circumstances the guide describes — for instance, where it obstructs vessel passage in a waterway the applicant is responsible for, or threatens improved property. Abandoned, privately owned vehicles and vessels on public property can be eligible for removal when they block access to a public-use area, the applicant follows the applicable laws for removing them, and it documents how they were handled.

Debris on private property

Debris on private property is, in general, the owner's responsibility, and FEMA's guide treats its removal as usually ineligible. The exception the guide describes is debris so widespread that it threatens public health and safety or the community's economic recovery; in those circumstances FEMA may determine that private property debris removal is eligible, and it works with the state, tribal or territorial government to designate the areas involved. Under Version 5 of the guide, FEMA's pre-approval is not required before private property debris removal starts, but the applicant notifies FEMA that the work is under way and what kind of property is involved, so that FEMA can make its own notifications, including for environmental and historic preservation review; earlier editions required FEMA's approval first.

The guide then distinguishes private roads, private non-commercial property and private commercial property, and eligibility becomes less likely along that line: a private road the public uses freely tends to be treated much like a public one, clearing residential property is usually not in the public interest, and commercial property is typically ineligible because businesses are expected to carry insurance. Where private property work is eligible, the guide describes the legal groundwork it expects — the applicant's authority to do the work, rights of entry from the owners, and agreements that hold the federal government harmless — together with an assertion, by a public health authority or another public entity with the legal authority to make it, that the debris is an immediate threat to life, public health or safety, or to the community's economic recovery. Insurance proceeds an owner receives for the same work are taken into account, so the same removal is not paid for twice.

Who does the work, and how it is monitored

Applicants may remove debris with their own crews and equipment, with contractors, or both. FEMA's guide pays for an applicant's own labor on debris removal under rules that differ somewhat from other emergency work: regular-time pay for permanent employees, which is usually not eligible for emergency work, can be eligible for debris removal under the alternative procedures the Stafford Act provides. Contracted debris removal is commonly priced by volume or weight, or per tree or stump, and the guide describes how it expects loads to be measured and certain capacity adjustments it applies.

When the work is contracted, FEMA's guide requires the applicant to monitor it: observing and documenting the operation from pickup to final disposal, at both the loading and the disposal sites, so that the quantities and work claimed are accurate and eligible. Monitors can be the applicant's own staff, temporary hires or contractors, and FEMA offers to train an applicant's own monitors on request; the guide regards professional engineers as more qualified than the role needs, unless the applicant explains why they were required.

Records, timing and cost share

FEMA's guide lists the documentation it expects for debris projects: quantities removed, reduced, recycled and disposed of, by type; load tickets and photographs of the debris impacts; the locations and permits of temporary staging and reduction sites and of final disposal sites; and, for contracted work, proof that monitoring took place. Private property work adds a list of its own, including the properties involved and the legal documents described above.

Emergency work, debris removal included, is expected to be completed within a set period after the declaration, which the recipient and FEMA can extend; the guide also weighs how urgently the applicant proceeded when it judges whether a threat was immediate. The federal share of eligible debris removal costs is at least 75 percent, and FEMA may increase it for a limited period in some disasters. Revenue from recycling debris reduces the funding by the amount received, net of the applicant's costs to handle the salvage.