Hillsboro, OR — June 29, 2005 —
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded Clean Water Services $847,250 over a five year period to update water resource models and floodplain maps in the urban portions of the Tualatin River Watershed. Floodplain maps help local communities manage flood risks and reduce their economic and social impacts.
"Being proactive in water resources management paid off," said Kendra Smith, Clean Water Services’ project manager for the floodplain mapping project and the Healthy Streams Plan. “The federal dollars leveraged funding from Clean Water Services, its member cities, Washington County, and Lake Oswego,” she said.
After reviewing the extensive water modeling done for the Healthy Streams Plan, FEMA staff encouraged Clean Water Services to take the next step and create updated digital floodplain maps. "The flood of 1996 proved the maps needed updating," Smith said. “Most maps were last updated in the late 1970's and early 1980's. With all the watershed changes and the advances in modeling and mapping technologies, it made sense to update.” FEMA funded a majority of the mapping effort, while Clean Water Services managed the project locally as a cooperating technical partner.
“Map Modernization gives everyone—communities, government agencies and homeowners, the ability to focus risk management activities,” said FEMA Region 10 Mitigation Division Director Carl Cook. “This latest grant was made under the Cooperating Technical Partners (CTP) program, and allows Clean Water Services to convert the existing flood insurance rate maps for Washington County to FEMA’s new digital standards (Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps, or DFIRM). Clean Water Services will also oversee the development of new Digital Flood Insurance Studies (DFIS) in their service district.”
The technical work and public involvement for the floodplain mapping project is nearly done, and FEMA is currently conducting a final review of the submitted model and mapping information. Property owners who live near streams, wetlands and other bodies of water are particularly interested in the mapping, which shows where flooding is likely to occur and thereby triggers the requirement for flood insurance when a property is sold or refinanced. Once FEMA has accepted the information, they will host a final public meeting before publishing the maps. The review and approval process is expected to take a year.
The maps become official for flood insurance purposes as soon as FEMA publishes them. As members of the National Flood Insurance Program, the cities, County, and FEMA are authorized to provide citizens with floodplain information. Preliminary copies of the updated floodplain maps are available for review, and anyone with questions about floodplain maps and water surface elevations should contact their local engineering department.
Clean Water Services is the sanitary sewer and surface water management utility for nearly 500,000 people in urban Washington County and small portions of Multnomah County, Clackamas County, Lake Oswego, and Portland. Clean Water Services operates four wastewater treatment plants, constructs and maintains flood management and water quality projects and manages flow in the Tualatin River to improve water quality and protect fish habitat. Although Clean Water Services maintains a close working relationship with Washington County government, it is a separately managed and financed public utility.