DR-4353-CA Public Notice 004

Ventura County, California
Improvement in Coverage of Alert2 Flood Warning System
HMGP-4353‐106‐50

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) intends to provide federal financial assistance under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to the Ventura County Watershed Protection District (VCWPD) in Ventura County, CA to improve the already existing ALERT2 Flood Warning System. Pursuant to Executive Order 11988 (Floodplain Management) and FEMA’s implementing regulations at Title 44 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 9, FEMA hereby provides interested parties with a notice of its intent to carry out an action affecting a floodplain.

The proposed action would improve real-time data reporting from the ALERT2 Flood Warning System by filling gaps in the system in order to provide data to monitor changing hydrological conditions and warn of severe storm cells which may trigger flood and mudslide events and helping to fill "blind spots" that currently exist. The proposed action would improve the ability to track storm systems and predict when and where they will hit to assist in the evacuation of communities. The flood warning system provides needed time for threatened residents to evacuate, and therefore, decreases the threat of injury or death during flood events. The proposed action consists of the following: 1) installing three new ALERT2 Transmitter monitoring sites; 2) upgrading six existing non-telemetered monitoring station sites by installing telemetry equipment; 3) adding new web cameras to capture visual data at two existing sites and one new site. The improvements would occur at 11 project sites. Installations at the new and upgraded sites typically consists of an ALERT2 real time transmitter with tipping bucket rain gage and data logger in a new gage house. The new sites and several of the upgraded sites also include installation of a new aluminum tube approximately 12 inches in diameter and up to 10 feet tall that is set vertically in the ground. Construction areas are approximately four to six square feet at the new and existing sites to be upgraded. Web cameras at the two existing sites would be attached to existing or new gage houses, and at the new site would be attached to the new gage house.

One of the 11 project sites, Ventura River at Foster Park lies within Zone AE, a flood hazard area with a 1-percent probability of flooding every year (depicted on Flood Insurance Rate Map [FIRM] Number 06111C0731E). The improvements at Ventura River at Foster Park of attaching of a web camera to the existing gage house structure. Four of the project sites are designated as Zone D, which identifies areas that have possible but undetermined flood hazards or unstudied areas. Of these four project sites, two, Murrieta Divide (FIRM Number 06111C0535E) and Potrero Seco (FIRM Number 06111C0225E), are located near channel where water flows part of the year and are possibly located in a floodplain. The other two Zone D sites, Chief Peak (FIRM Number 06111C0425E) and Matilija Divide (FIRM Number 06083C1225F), are located near a mountain peak and a ridgeline, respectively, and are unlikely to be in a floodplain. Chief Peak, Murrieta Divide and Potrero Seco are existing monitoring sites, and Matilija Divide is a new site. The remaining six project sites are located in Zone X, which is outside of a special flood hazard area (FIRM Numbers 06111C0765E, 06111C0731E, 06111C0760E, 06111C0765E, 06111C0640E 06111C0731E).

Maps of the project areas and their locations within the floodplain are available for public inspection. All parties interested in receiving a copy of the map should contact the FEMA Region IX Environmental Officer at the address or phone number below. FIRM Numbers 06111C0535E, 06111C0225E, 06111C0425E, and 06083C1225F are not printed and are only available electronically.

Additional information about FEMA’s proposed action may be obtained by writing the FEMA Region IX Environmental Officer at FEMA, 1111 Broadway, Suite 1200, Oakland, California 94607; fema-rix-ehp-documents@fema.dhs.gov; or calling (510) 627-7027. All requests should be received no later than 15 days after publication of this notice.