The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is conducting a series of listening sessions across the country to solicit public input on a new Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS).  The session in Sacramento last week drew 150 participants, including representatives from RCRC.  The new FFRMS was released with a new Executive Order 13690 that calls upon all federal agencies to expand their individual definitions of a floodplain and exercise greater scrutiny of any federal action in the floodplain.  While the Standard and the Executive Order will not change, FEMA is asking the public to comment on implementation guidance that federal agencies will follow as they develop their own regulations and policy for avoiding development in the floodplain.  FEMA announced this week that the public comment period has been extended an additional 30 days to May 6, 2015.  

Some participants in the Sacramento session expressed support for the new Standard, while other business organizations and floodplain managers raised concerns for the prospect that every federal agency will have the discretion to define the floodplain differently from other agencies.  Rather than rely on the floodplain identified on FEMA maps, federal agencies are directed to expand the floodplain and the breadth of their permits, licenses, loans, grants, or other federal action based on climate change science, additional elevation requirements, or the 500-year floodplain.