Flood Plain Management 



the NFIP. States also provide enabling legislation allowing towns to undertake floodplain 

 management initiatives required by the NFIP. 



State legislative bodies and agencies may also require more restrictive practices than the 

 NFIP by enacting and implementing laws to protect barrier islands, wetiands, and other 

 coastal or inland watershed resources that serve as flood hazard buffers. Regulatory 

 measures in some states virtually prohibit construction in the 100-year floodplain, by 

 severely limiting construction and extension of infrastructure. Many states aiso provide 

 standard elevation requirements that account for storm conditions or technical limitations in 

 the flood maps. 



Findings and Concerns 



Introduction 



Several elements of the existing inter-governmental hazard mitigation 

 framework provide bases for control of runoff, erosion, and sedimentation, 

 and for imposition of siting controls which could significantly reduce 

 impacts on receiving waters. For example, the NFIP emphasizes that siting 

 development so as to contribute to or perpetuate flood hazard should be strictiy avoided. 

 The federal regulations require communities to control drainage so as to minimize 

 downstream flood hazard, and to control erosion and sedimentation so as to eliminate loss 

 of flood storage capacity. In addition, policies and Executive Orders issued at the state and 

 federal levels prohibit development of infrastructure in hazard-prone areas except under 

 special circumstances, and encourage land management initiatives which minimize hazard. 



As a condition of the disaster assistance agreement made between Rhode Island and 

 FEMA following Hurricane Gloria, a Hazard Mitigation Task Force was formed to address 

 mitigation policy. The Salt Pond Area Hurricane Preparedness Plan, developed via the 

 special area management process, was extended through the preparation of the state's Post 

 Hurricane Mitigation Plan (1986) and Hazard Mitigation Plan (1987). These plans 

 recommended many legislative actions, regulatory measures, and program revisions of 

 importance in non-point pollution control. 



NFIP Participation 



All construction requirements of the NFIP were incorporated into the state building 

 code in 1977, as required by a major federal regulatory revision of 1976. All 39 Rhode 

 Island towns have at least generally incorporated federal floodplain management 

 requirements into zoning controls. Local building codes must be consistent with the state's 

 flood hazard mitigation requirements as articulated in the state building code. 



At the state level, the floodplain management program is administered by the Division of 

 Planning, CRMC, and the Freshwater Wedands program within DEM (which considers 

 floodplain impacts when reviewing applications for wetiand alteration). For the most 

 part, neither the towns nor the state agencies involved have been successful 

 in using the floodplain management program as broadly as it could be in 

 addressing the range of land use issues within its jurisdiction. Local 

 floodplain management measures for the most part emphasize elevation and construction 

 requirements, rather than avoidance of flood hazard areas per se. State authority has 



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