EPHRATA — The City of Ephrata has completed the first step in a long-term effort to remove hundreds of acres of downtown property from a federal floodplain designation. 

“There's typically all this funding suddenly available to communities after the emergency,” said City Project Engineer and Grant Planner Dave Bren. “Well, we haven't had an emergency since 1948. That was the last time that I know of that we got heavily inundated where the downtown had water. A lot of people don’t really understand why or how we are in a flood zone.”  

The Ephrata City Council recently accepted a $112,500 Strategic Infrastructure Program grant through the Grant County Economic Development Council to fund development of a FEMA-approved Flood Hazard Mitigation Plan. The grant marks Phase 1, Step 1 of a multi-year process city officials hope will eventually remove all or part of a 533-acre floodplain designation covering much of downtown Ephrata. 

Bren said the grant provides the seed funding needed to begin a process that has prevented the city from pursuing major federal flood mitigation funding for decades. 

"Getting that put together and getting it approved by FEMA will make us eligible for non-emergency FEMA grants," he said. "That is what has been holding us up all these decades." 

According to the city's flood mitigation plan, the effort is intended to complete a 1972 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers design that called for improvements to Ephrata's existing flood diversion channel to accommodate a 100-year flood event. While portions of the project were built in 1974, the original goal was never fully completed, leaving downtown within an AO sheet-flow floodplain zone. 

The newly awarded grant will fund preparation of the Flood Hazard Mitigation Plan, which must be reviewed by the Washington Emergency Management Division and FEMA before receiving final approval. Once approved, the city would become eligible for FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, grant program and other federal mitigation funding opportunities. 

Bren said the city also plans to begin work on a separate Letter of Map Amendment, or LOMA, process that could remove approximately 175 acres from the floodplain within the next two to three years. The city believes modern LiDAR data can demonstrate portions of downtown are physically incapable of flooding from Dry Creek sheet flow. 

"We could do this for a chunk of the city that would immediately have an impact for residents, builders and commercial building owners," Bren said. 

Removing properties from the floodplain could save homeowners and businesses money by eliminating federal flood insurance requirements. 

Bren said one city employee currently pays about $1,700 annually for flood insurance because their home falls within the designated flood zone. 

"If we're successful with this, it would have a direct impact for anyone who has a current loan on their house," he said. 

The larger effort, known as a Conditional Letter of Map Revision, or CLOMR, would involve several major infrastructure projects, including upgrades to flood diversion channels, levees, bridges and pump stations. City estimates place the total cost of those improvements at more than $18 million and indicate construction could take six to 10 years or longer, depending on grant funding. 

Bren said the city is realistic about the timeline but optimistic about the outcome. 

"It's going to happen. It's just going to take time and money," Bren said. "Everyone needs to understand that it's going to happen sooner or later." 

While the floodplain removal process could take more than a decade to complete, Bren said securing the planning grant represents an important milestone. 

"We have started," he said. "The very first step of the very first phase."