Floodplain Management Guidance
Floodplain Management Requirements for Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) Program Resources
For those applying to the 2021 WQIP program, please see the guidance below for any projects located within an Enhanced Flood Hazard Area, Enhanced Coastal High Hazard Area, or the 0.2% floodplain. Get more information about the WQIP Program.
If the project is within an Enhanced Flood Hazard Area, Enhanced Coastal High Hazard Area, or the 0.2% floodplain, the following information must be provided:
- A floodplain map with the location of the project indicated;
- A site plan with the contours indicating the Enhanced Flood Hazard Area, Enhanced Coastal High Hazard Area, or the 0.2% floodplain;
- Location and elevation of non-critical and critical equipment (if applicable to project);
- Certification of floodproofing (if applicable to project) and;
- A floodway analysis with a no-rise certificate if the project is within a regulated floodway.
For additional guidance and information to meet the above requirements please review the following:
- The FEMA Map Service Center (leaves DEC website) for available Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs). Communities with mapping dated to 1978 to 1986 may have the floodways delineated on a separate map panel. This critical information is not shown when searching by address on FEMA's Map Service Center. To check for separate floodway panels, search all products for a community.
- To determine the Enhanced Flood Hazard Area and additional flood risk considerations please review the NYS Flood Risk Management Guidance for Implementation of the Community Risk and Resiliency Act (leaves DEC website).
- For Wastewater Treatment Improvement projects please review TR-16 Guides for the Design of Wastewater Treatment Works (leaves DEC website). This guide must be considered in the design of wastewater treatment and is newly revised to reflect the need for resiliency in the face of storm surge and extreme weather.
- Non-residential structures located within the Flood Hazard Area have the option to floodproof instead of elevating. FEMA's Technical Bulletin 3 (leaves DEC website) provides guidance on the NFIP floodplain management requirements for the design and certification of dry floodproofing.
- Any development within a regulatory floodway, as indicated on a community's FIRM or Flood Boundary and Floodway Map, requires a hydraulic analysis to demonstrate "no-rise" in flood levels as a result of the project before a floodplain development permit can be issued. Requests for modeling can be sent to floodplain@dec.ny.gov - please include the community and stream reach needed with the request.
Note: Floodplain management is locally administered, any development within a FEMA identified Special Flood Hazard Area requires a local floodplain development permit from the municipality with jurisdiction. This is in addition to any other necessary local, State, or Federal permits or approvals. Being awarded funding or issued a DEC permit does not remove the requirement for a local floodplain development permit.
Joining the National Flood Insurance Program
The National Flood Insurance Program is a Federal program enabling property owners in participating communities to purchase insurance protection against losses from flooding. This insurance is designed to provide an insurance alternative to disaster assistance to meet the escalating costs of repairing damage to buildings and their contents caused by floods.
Participation in the National Flood Insurance Program is based on an agreement between local communities and the Federal Government that states if a community will adopt and enforce a floodplain management ordinance to reduce future flood risks to new construction in Special Flood Hazard Areas (100-year floodplain, or areas subject to a 1 percent or greater chance of flooding per year), the Federal Government will make flood insurance available within the community as a financial protection against flood losses. If communities do not participate in the National Flood Insurance Program then insurance companies can not write policies for that community and federally regulated lending institutions are prohibited from issuing mortgages for properties within mapped Special Flood Hazard Areas as depicted on the Flood Insurance Rate Map.
Currently, the majority of New York State communities with mapped flood hazard areas are already in the National Flood Insurance Program. There are also many communities which do not have maps that participate so that their residents may have access to flood insurance.
In order to join the National Flood Insurance Program a municipality simply needs to pass a resolution indicating that it is interested in joining the program, fill out an application (see right column of this page) and adopt the necessary flood damage prevention local law to be approved by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This local law indicates that if a community has mapped flood hazard areas and if development is to occur in those flood hazard areas then the development is required to be built to certain standards, identified in the National Flood Insurance Program's regulations (44 CFR 60.3) and the New York State Building and Residential Codes. If development is being considered for a Special Flood Hazard Area, then the local floodplain administrator, an office designated in the local law, reviews the development to ensure that construction standards have been met before issuing a floodplain development permit. Non-structural development within a Special Flood Hazard Area is also subject to a local floodplain development permit.
DEC has three model local laws for flood damage prevention that communities can adopt to join the program: one for communities without mapped flood hazards, one for communities with standard mapped flood hazards, and another for communities with coastal flood hazard areas. Materials needed to join the National Flood Insurance Program are listed in the right-hand column on this webpage. If your community would like more information on joining the program please contact the floodplain management section at the number also listed in the right-hand column.
To request the Model Flood Damage Prevention Law appropriate for your community, please email the DEC Floodplain Management Section or call 518-402-8185.
More about Floodplain Management Guidance:
- Q&A about Flood Insurance in NYS - Common questions about flood insurance in NYS
