The remaining major activities within the program are interfacing with the National Flood Insurance Program, maintenance eligibility, flood hazard area delineation, master plan implementation by others and public information.

Our maintenance eligibility program continues to flourish under David Mallory’s direction. See David’s column elsewhere in this issue. Following is a discussion of significant accomplishments in the other areas.

DFIRM conversion projects
In late 2003 we began Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map (DFIRM) conversion projects for the City and County of Denver and Northern Douglas County. The Douglas County DFIRM became effective on September 30, 2005 and the Denver DFIRM became effective November 17, 2005.

The Boulder County DFIRM conversion is being managed by the CWCB. The contractor is PBS&J. Revised preliminary maps have been provided to the local governments. The expected effective date is September 30, 2006.

Last year we received FEMA DFIRM conversion grants of $480,000 each for Adams County and Arapahoe County. The District has contributed $70,000 for each county and the CWCB has contributed $50,000 each.

The contractor for Adams County is ICON Engineering, and for Arapahoe County it is Merrick and Co. Preliminary maps and Flood Insurance Studies for each county were distributed to the local governments for comment on September 30. The formal 90-day appeal period is set to begin on January 1, 2006.

A Jefferson County DFIRM was completed by Michael Baker, Jr. in 2003. Unfortunately, it was completed in NGVD 29 datum, while the other DFIRMs have been converted to NAVD 88. The District has received a $240,000 grant from FEMA, to be matched by $30,000 each from the District and CWCB, to convert the Jefferson County DFIRM to the new datum. This is probably not enough money to complete all of the required work and publish new panels, but it will be a good start.

While we are at it we will use digital flood hazard area delineation study reports completed or underway to supplement or replace older data sources in the DFIRM. This will include Ralston Creek, Leyden Creek, Massey Draw and North Tributary, SJCD (South) and Tributaries, Clear Creek, and Dutch Creek and Tributaries.

Consultant selection for this effort was underway at the time this was written. Work should begin in January.

Realistically, by September, 2006 we should have all of the District’s area covered with DFIRMs. Our next challenge will be to convince FEMA to delegate to the District the responsibility for maintaining all aspects of the DFIRMs for the District’s seven counties, including base map revisions, Letters of Map Revision (LOMRs) and new floodplain delineations..

LOMC pilot project
On July 1, 2001 we began a pilot project with FEMA to assume the responsibility to review requests for Letters of Map Change for the 32 communities within the District that are participating in the National Flood Insurance Program. We begin 2006 with a new grant to continue the project Our final reports to FEMA on the results of the first three years are available on our web site. The fourth year report will be posted in early 2006.

We completed a DFIRM maintenance pilot project, using the Broomfield DFIRM to get a feel for what is involved in map maintenance, including incorporating new LOMRs into the DFIRM, adding new information to the base map, adding a new floodplain to the DFIRM and adjusting to receipt of more accurate data. Our report to FEMA on this project is on our web site.

Floodplain delineation
We completed two flood hazard area delineation (FHAD) studies this year: South Platte River in Adams County, and Upper Goldsmith Gulch in Arapahoe County,

We have FHADs underway for Clear Creek through Adams County, Clear Creek in Jefferson County, Massey Draw and SJCD (South) in Jefferson County, and Dutch Creek and Tributaries in Jefferson County.

All of these studies are prepared in digital form compatible with FEMA’s DFIRM specifications, and have been or will be incorporated into the appropriate DFIRMs.

Implementation efforts
Implementation of portions of our master plans, particularly regional detention facilities, is always a challenge. We are currently negotiating an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Denver and the Rocky Mountain Arsenal (RMA) for the construction, operation and maintenance of a number of facilities on the RMA. We are also negotiating an IGA with Denver and Aurora regarding the implementation of regional detention facilities in the Upper Second Creek watershed.

David Mallory’s column includes an example of a private sector implementation project.

FasTracks Coordination
Last year voters in the Denver metro area approved a proposed sales tax increase (called FasTracks) for the Regional Transportation District (RTD) to add over 100 miles of new light rail, commuter rail and bus rapid transit corridors to its system. As you can imagine, these transit corridors will cross, or in some cases parallel, many major drainageways, requiring close coordination to minimize potential conflicts.

The first corridor scheduled for implementation is light rail along the West Corridor. It extends from downtown Denver to Golden, passing through Denver, Lakewood and Jefferson County on the way. Major conflicts will be encountered at the South Platte River, Lakewood Gulch and Dry Gulch.

We have been meeting frequently with RTD and local government officials to coordinate the potential implementation of District master plans in these areas in coordination with and ahead of the rail construction.

We have established a West Corridor working group that meets monthly, and have also discussed the next three corridors with RTD representatives.

Check these out on our web site
We have a photo album showing what we consider to be good examples for others to emulate. We also have an Activity Summary map that identifies all District studies completed or in progress. We update the status of all our studies quarterly. It would be a good idea for anyone working on a drainage study in the District to check this map for existing or on-going studies that might affect their work.