Contributed by: Mark Nystrom, AOC Energy, Environmental and Land Use Policy Manager

May 27, 2016

DLCD hosted a webinar for elected officials last week and have posted the slides on the Biological Opinion on the NFIP in Oregon page (the presentation is near the bottom of the page.) DLCD will continue to keep the site updated with information about outreach efforts. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries’ timeline you should be receiving a letter of notice from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the next month or so. At this time the only action for county officials is to learn more about the biological opinion (BiOp) and reach out to partner governments and organizations to learn as much as possible. It is unknown this time what interim measures National Floodplain Insurance Program (NFIP) communities will have to take but in the near future you should be hearing about regional workshops to provide information regarding FEMA’s plans.

DLCD has announced the first in a series of meetings around the state that they are hosting with FEMA. They will discuss the directives in the Reasonable and Prudent Alternative (RPAs) and development of an implementation plan with NFIP communities. At this point they have three meetings tentatively lined up for the last week of June. Other meetings will be scheduled in July and possibly August. As details are finalized meetings will be posted on the web site.

These are the tentative dates and locations of the first three meetings:

  • June 27, Albany
  • June 28, North Bend
  • June 29,  Medford

Meetings will likely run 2-3 hours and be held in the afternoon. More details will be available soon.

In April NOAA Fisheries delivered their final BiOp on the NFIP in Oregon to FEMA. The BiOp is posted on NOAA Fisheries’ website along with a break-out of the reasonable and prudent alternative (RPA) and a background/FAQ document (third through fifth bullets under “Habitat Protection, Floodplains”).  http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/habitat/conservation/index.html