Under an amendment added by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin to the Federal Aviation Administration's latest budget bill, Yeager Airport officials would be able to use their annual FAA maintenance entitlement to rebuild the airport's collapsed safety overrun area if the Federal Emergency Management Agency doesn't come through with money for the job.
FEMA has already made an initial ruling that Yeager's does not meet eligibility requirements. Yeager officials have asked them to reconsider.
Manchin, D-W.Va., added the amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act, which cleared the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee earlier this week.
Kanawha was one of 30 West Virginia counties included in a March 30, 2015, presidential disaster declaration following a severe winter storm earlier in the month that produced flooding, mudslides and landslides.
While FEMA has reimbursed Yeager for some of the expenses it incurred in mitigating damage to utilities and adjacent property owners, the agency denied the airport's request for funding to replace its landslide-destroyed safety overrun area.
The safety overrun collapse remains the subject of numerous insurance claims and lawsuits dealing with the overrun area's design, construction and maintenance.
"When I toured Yeager Airport last March, I saw, first hand, the disastrous impact that this landslide had on this community, and I committed to help lead the effort to make it right," Manchin said in a release following passage of the Senate's version of the FAA Reauthorization Act. "My amendment will give airports like Yeager access to the funding they need to make necessary repairs. Without any change to current law, places like Yeager find themselves empty handed when disaster strikes, ineligible for any of the federal programs designed to make them whole again."
"We haven't given up on our appeal for FEMA funding," said Yeager Airport Director Terry Sayre. But if the airport fails to prevail in its appeal, "what the Senator has done could give us a good fall-back position. We appreciate his efforts."
During the last two years, Yeager has received more than $5.3 million in Airport Improvement Program funds - the money that would be tapped to pay for unmet disaster recovery work under Manchin's amendment. The amendment would allow AIP funding earmarked for projects like taxiway repairs to be diverted to disaster recovery projects.
The FAA Reauthorization Act approved by the Senate committee still must be approved by the full Senate, then clear the House, before it can be signed into law by President Obama.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelhammer@wvgazetemail.com, 304-348-5169, or follow @rsteelhammer on Twitter.