Management of White County’s Floodplain Resources: Who, What, When, Where, and Why?

Billy Teague, Floodplain Manager and Debra Lang, White County Floodplain Administrator

 White County streams and rivers, and their low-lying terraces that make up much of the county’s floodplain area, are priceless natural resources.  Branches, creeks, and rivers provide a wealth of recreation resources for the county, not to mention crop water supplies and some of our drinking water.  Some of our park-like flood plain regions beautify the surrounding landscape, while also providing playground areas or convenient stream access for fishing, swimming, or boating.  Other flood-prone areas contribute to the county’s agricultural crop land, and/or provide shelter for wildlife, that otherwise we would not have.  In the event of heavy rain storms, either locally or upstream, our creeks and rivers are the only conduits that can safely move water away fast enough to avoid the loss of human life and property.  When storms are so severe that water begins to spill over the stream- and river- banks, the flood plains are the main buffers that we have to store the excess water.  The creeks and rivers should remain free of obstruction, and there are guidelines for developing the lands that are subject to periodic flooding.  More often than not, the streams and rivers are easy enough to identify, but the floodplain regions are sometimes difficult to distinguish.  There are published maps available for “officially” identifying the land areas subject to periodic flooding, and there are specific standards governing development activities that occur in these designated areas.

Approximately 30%, or 300 square miles, of White County’s 1000-square-mile total land area is designated “special flood hazard area” (SFHA), in other words, “official” flood prone area.  In order to encourage safe future development, and to ensure continuing availability of flood insurance to rural White County residents, the county’s Floodplain Management and GIS Office is requesting the cooperation of everyone who owns property, or who plans to develop property, in one of the special flood hazard areas.  Flood insurance currently is available to county residents because of our good standing as a member “community” of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  In order to participate in the NFIP, the county adopted the Flood Hazard Prevention Ordinance #97-11 in August, 1997.  The ordinance names the White County Tax Assessor as the county’s Floodplain Administrator.  Adherence to various provisions of the ordinance, by those planning to develop, build, or work in the designated flood-prone areas, is necessary for White County to maintain its good standing in the NFIP.  The ordinance in its entirety is available for inspection at the Floodplain Management and GIS Office at 119 W Arch Avenue in Searcy, and the ordinance is also available at the County Clerk’s Office in the White County Courthouse.  Excerpts from the ordinance can be found in Q/A form on-line at: http://www.whitecountyar.org/Floodplain&GIS.htm.

The unofficial 300-square-mile SFHA estimate was derived from measurements made on scanned (digital) copies of rural White County’s 15 Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs).  SFHAs are the land areas that are subject to inundation by the so-called base flood - i.e. the flood which has a 1 in 100 chance of occurring at a given location in any given year.  The 15 FIRMs bearing the county’s Community Number: 050467 legally define and delineate the flood-prone areas of unincorporated White County.  The incorporated areas (Searcy, Bald Knob, etc.) have their own community numbers and flood maps.  Only a few corrections have been made to the county maps since they were first published in 1977.  Those changes are shown on separate documents rather than on the maps per se.  Rural White County FIRMs, as well as the map change documents showing map corrections, are available for inspection at the floodplain management office.  Also, the maps and the map change documents can be viewed and /or obtained directly from FEMA’s on-line Flood Map Store at http://www.fema.gov/fima/nfip.shtm.

Parties who are unsure of the floodplain status of a certain property may call our office at (501) 279 - 6254.  The same is true for someone who believes that a certain property was erroneously included in an SFHA.  Rarely, but occasionally, a mistake was made during a third-party flood hazard determination process that a lender had requested for a pending loan application.  In each instance, following a review of information that our office provided to the borrower, the third-party revised its determination to show that the site in question was not in the flood plain, after all.  Also rarely, there are instances of inclusion of areas of higher ground in a Zone A region on one of the county FIRMs, where the “higher ground” has an elevation sufficiently high to remove the “flood-prone” designation from a certain parcel or future home site.  In this situation the land owner may request a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) from FEMA, but such requests typically require supporting base flood elevation (BFE) data and related vertical land survey data.  The BFE is the highest elevation that water is expected to reach at a given location during a flood that is equal in magnitude to the “base flood”.

The SFHAs shown on the flood maps have particular significance for those owning property located in one of these areas – as well as for developers, builders, owners of mobile homes planning to locate in an SFHA, insurers, and lenders.  The same is true for anyone planning any activity that is likely to affect normal stream flows within an SFHA, affect the water storage capacity of an SFHA, or impact a natural wetlands area within an SFHA.  When someone owning property in an SFHA plans to sell that property, the potential buyer must be informed of the flood risk, and should be notified of the requirement for flood insurance coverage of houses, mobile homes, or other structures that are, or will be, located on the land.  Very often, but not always, a potential buyer will be alerted of floodplain status by a lender, during a loan application review process.  Even if the buyer has not been alerted by a lender, the seller should be sure the buyer is aware of the “floodplain” status of the property, prior to sale of the property.

A second important provision of the county’s flood hazard prevention ordinance is a permitting process for those planning to develop or build within an SFHA.  Land developers planning subdivisions should obtain a Floodplain Development Permit when any portion of a planned subdivision includes an SFHA.  Any structure built in an SFHA more recently than 1997 was (and still is) required to meet minimal construction standards that are outlined in the ordinance, and a Floodplain Development Permit is required for the building project.  The specific permitting requirements vary considerably, depending on the nature and scope of a flood plain project.  The standards differ somewhat for residential, as opposed to non-residential structures, and there are specific standards for manufactured homes located in an SFHA.  Those planning any work in an SFHA should sign a permit application form and provide the floodplain management office with detailed plans, including a plat, before any construction or other development work actually begins at a site.   BFE data (at developer’s expense) will be required for subdivisions containing five or more acres, or 50 or more lots, and more often than not a BFE will be required from an individual planning to build or relocate a structure in an SFHA.

Developers should be cautious when planning a dam or culvert for an existing stream.  Permits from the United States Army Corps of Engineers must be requested by the developer, when the subdivision plans include work of any kind on a creek, river, or wetlands area.  In situations where the development is likely to alter boundaries of the regions subject to inundation by the base flood, detailed plans must be submitted to FEMA engineers for review, along with hydrologic and hydraulic analyses performed during determination of base flood elevations for the planned subdivision.  Review fees for this process can range from $4,000 to $10,000.

Obtaining a permit for work that is planned in an SFHA is usually a two-step process.  The first is a “conditional permitting” step.  In this step the applicant notifies the Floodplain Management and GIS Office of plans and a description of the project’s location on an application form, and also agrees to the conditions for permitting by signing the application.  Work may begin on the project at the conditional permitting stage, but continuing the work is contingent on our office receiving the additional project- and/or location- specific data specified with the Conditional Permit.  The second step begins with delivery of the items specified under the conditional permit, and concludes with granting of the development permit.  The two steps are outlined in the county’s Application for Floodplain Development Permit.  The application form together with instructions may be obtained from the floodplain management office, or alternatively, printed out from on-line versions of the form and instructions that are available at the above-mentioned website.  The same application form is used regardless of the type of work planned in the SFHA.

Following a permitted construction project in an SFHA, or permitted relocation to an SFHA, certification of compliance may be obtained for houses, mobile (manufactured) homes, and other structures, provided minimum ordinance standards have been met.  The applicant should have a surveyor or engineer to complete an Elevation Certificate that includes the BFE for the site.  The Elevation Certificate prepared by the surveyor or engineer will also contain professionally certified “as built” structure- and location- specific elevation data.  At this stage the structure’s “bottom floor” elevation, and elevations for lowest and highest adjacent grades, are required.  Residential structures should have bottom floor elevations at or above the BFE in order to comply with ordinance standards.  For non-residential structures, flood proofing to or above the BFE can achieve compliance, but pertinent elevations, as well as the quality of flood proofing, still must be surveyor-, engineer-, or architect- certified.  For mobile (manufactured) homes, there are anchoring- as well as elevation- standards.  Regardless of the structure, there are standards that apply to elevation and/or flood proofing of servicing equipment such as heaters or air conditioners, utility lines, and water supply / sewage disposal facilities.  When the required Elevation Certificate (signed and sealed by the surveyor or engineer) demonstrates that a structure qualifies, the applicant will receive a Certificate of Compliance from the county for that structure.

For additional information on the county’s flood hazard prevention ordinance, and/or the permitting process, consult the floodplain management website (above), drop by the office or call (501) 279-6254.  Related information, such as approved methods that are available for BFE determination, may be found in the White County Public Library, or on-line from FEMA’s NFIP website.