BOARD02598

• Board Meeting Date: 9/18/1974
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

by counties. As everyone knows there are sixty-three ,counties in this
state, and a substantial portion of them to date have adopted a form
resolution advising state agencies that they desire assistance under
House Bill 1041. As rapidly as possible we had to get out some type
of instructions to the local governments in order that they would know
how to proceed with floodplain identifications.

At this time we do not have any clear idea of how many miles of flood-
plains we are talking about. The total floodplains in this state in
mileage exceeds the circumference of the earth. We estimate a cost of
somewhere around $5,000 a lineal mile for floodplain studies. If we
identify all the floodplains in the state, it is obvious that there
will not be sufficient funds in the next many years to accomplish such
identification. However, the law provides that we identify only those
floodplains that present a foreseeable hazard. This will greatly limit
the mileage of the floodplains that we have to delineate in the imme-
diate future. We estimate at this time that this may mean about 5,000
miles. It may be somewhat less, not much less, or maybe a little more.
But even at 5,000 miles at $5,000 a mile, this means a cost of twenty-
five million dollars. However, we have made a substantial start. In
1960 we started on this job anticipating that floodplains would be an.
increasing problem as time went on. At the present time, about a
thousand miles of floodplains have already been studied and identified.

The maJor problem facing us now is how. to do this by June 30,1976 with
the very limited amount of money available. The best we can see by
1976 is a general identification of floodplains. There is no way that
we can determine the specific details that are required in order to
intelligently regulate the use of floodplains. What.we have put out
is information to the cities and counties informing them of the method
of making application for assistance. We will do our best with the
available funds and personnel to get the general identification done
by 1976. yIe have an application form that we want the local governments
to submit to us. They themselves will have to do some work in this
preliminary general identification. We have asked them to delineate
on a map the various floodplains that they think require identification
under House Bill 1041. This is merely an estimate on the part of local
governments. It is our opinion that they are in the best position to
know the areas that should be studied. We are requesting that they
take the initiative, using USGS quad sheets to delineate by color code
the areas that they think should be included in the general identifi-
cation procedure. We have requested them to submit that map to us by
the end of this year.

Mr. Kroeyer: Are there any questions from the board regarding this? I
It has a I been mailed out. It took me about two days to read it and
Larry summarized it here in ten minutes!

Mr. Vandemoer: Larry, ~ don't. know if it is even supposed to be
covered in this, but I think in an area like mine in Sterling the
biggest problem is with bridges restricting flood flows. Is that cov-
ered in this, or does that have to be entirely different?

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