Connecticut General Statutes
Chapter 476a - Flood Management
Section 25-68b. - Definitions.

As used in sections 25-68b to 25-68h, inclusive:

(1) “Activity” means any proposed state action in a floodplain or any proposed state action that impacts natural or man-made storm drainage facilities that are located on property that the commissioner determines to be controlled by the state;
(2) “Base flood” means that flood which has a one per cent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any year, as defined in regulations of the National Flood Insurance Program (44 CFR 59 et seq.), or that flood designated by the commissioner pursuant to section 25-68c. Any flood so designated by the commissioner shall have at least a one per cent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any year. Such flood may be designated as the A or V zones on maps published by the National Flood Insurance Program. The “base flood for a critical activity” means the flood that has at least a .2 per cent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any year. Such flood may be designated as the B zone on maps published for the National Flood Insurance Program;
(3) “Commissioner” means the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection;
(4) “Critical activity” means any activity, including, but not limited to, the treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous waste and the siting of hospitals, housing for the elderly, schools or residences, in the .2 per cent floodplain in which the commissioner determines that a slight chance of flooding is too great;
(5) “Floodplain” means that area located within the real or theoretical limits of the base flood or base flood for a critical activity;
(6) “Flood-proofing” means any combination of structural or nonstructural additions, changes or adjustments which reduce or eliminate flood damage to real estate or improved real property, to water and sanitary facilities, and to structures and their contents, including, but not limited to, for properties within the coastal boundary, as established pursuant to subsection (b) of section 22a-94, not less than an additional two feet of freeboard above base flood and any additional freeboard necessary to account for the most recent sea level change scenario updated pursuant to subsection (b) of section 25-68o;
(7) “Freeboard” means a safety factor, expressed in feet above a calculated flood level, that compensates for unknown factors contributing to flood heights greater than the calculated height, including, but not limited to, ice jams, debris accumulations, wave actions, obstructions of bridge openings and floodways, the effects of urbanization on the hydrology of a watershed, loss of flood storage due to development and sedimentation of a watercourse bed;
(8) “Proposed state action” means individual activities or a sequence of planned activities proposed to be undertaken by a state department, institution or agency, any state or federal grant or loan proposed to be used to fund a project that affects land use, or proposed transfer of real property belonging to the state.
(P.A. 84-536, S. 1; P.A. 05-174, S. 1; P.A. 11-80, S. 1; P.A. 18-82, S. 8.)
History: P.A. 05-174 redefined “activity” in Subdiv. (1) and added Subdiv. (8) re definition of “proposed state action”; pursuant to P.A. 11-80, “Commissioner of Environmental Protection” was changed editorially by the Revisors to “Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection” in Subdiv. (3), effective July 1, 2011; P.A. 18-82 redefined “flood-proofing” in Subdiv. (6), effective June 6, 2018.

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