SEA Program Home > Shoreline Management Home > Floodway

Floodway

The Shoreline Management Act (RCW 90.58.030(2)(g) defines floodway as follows:

• "Floodway" means the area, as identified in a shoreline master program, that either: (i) Has been established in federal emergency management agency flood insurance rate maps or floodway maps; or

• Areas flooded with reasonable regularity: "those portions of the area of a river valley lying streamward from the outer limits of a watercourse upon which flood waters are carried during periods of flooding that occur with reasonable regularity, although not necessarily annually."

• Identified by soil and vegetation: floodway to be "identified, under normal condition, by changes in surface soil conditions or changes in types or quality of vegetative ground cover condition."

• Not to include lands protected from floods by legal dikes and levees: "The floodway shall not include those lands that can reasonably be expected to be protected from flood waters by flood control devices maintained by or maintained under license from the federal government, the state, or a political subdivision of the state."

For more information

Law: 90.58.030(2(g) (under Geographical Definitions)
Rule: WAC 173-22-030(5)

Back to main Jurisdiction menu