28 CFR § 63.7 - Determination of location.

(a) In order to determine whether an action is located on or affects a floodplain, the component shall:

(1) Consult the FIA Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) and the Flood Insurance Study (FIS); or

(2) If a detailed map (FIRM) is not available, consult an FIA Flood Hazard Boundary Map (FHBM); or

(3) If data on flood elevations, floodways, or coastal high hazard areas are needed, or if none of the maps delineates the flood hazard boundaries in the vicinity of the proposed site, seek detailed information and assistance as necessary and appropriate from the Department of Agriculture's Soil Conservation Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Regional Offices/Division of Insurance and Hazard Mitigation, the Department of the Interior's Geological Survey, Bureau of Land Management, and Bureau of Reclamation, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Delaware River Basin Commission, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, individual states and/or land administering agencies; or

(4) If the sources listed above do not have or know of the information necessary to comply with the Orders' requirements, seek, as permitted by law, the services of a federal or other engineer experienced in this work to

(i) Locate the site and the limits of the coastal high hazard area, floodway and of the applicable floodplain, and

(ii) Determine base flood elevations.

(b) In the absence of a finding to the contrary, the component shall assume that action involving a facility or structure that has been flooded in a major disaster or emergency is in the applicable floodplain for the site of the proposed action.

(c) In order to determine whether an action is located on or affects a wetland, the component shall:

(1) Consult with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for information concerning the location, scale and type of wetlands within the area which could be affected by the proposed action; or

(2) If the FWS does not have adequate information upon which to base the determination, consult wetland inventories maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, various states, communities and others; or

(3) If state or other sources do not have adequate information upon which to base the determination, insure that an on-site analysis is performed by a representative of the FWS or other qualified individual for wetlands characteristics based on the performance definition of what constitutes a wetland.