The Flood and Drainage Section of the Utilities Services Department works to manage the City’s floodplains and to plan, design, construct and maintain public drainage systems throughout the City.  The Flood and Drainage Section oversees:

• Capital Improvement Projects (CIPs)--Design and construction of publicly funded CIP’s
• Regional components of drainage planning, including coordination with the following agencies:
  • Truckee Meadows Regional Planning Agency
  • Truckee River Flood Management Authority
  • Western Regional Water Commission
  • Northern Nevada Water Planning Commission
  • Washoe County and Sparks, Regional Transportation Commission
• Flood Response
• Drainage related development reviews
• Drainage issues/problems/complaints
• Review of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) related flood map updates/changes and compliance with federal requirements
• Community repository for FEMA flood map information

Most homeowners and developers will typically interact with the City exclusively or primarily through Reno’s Development Services Department, which is responsible for review, permitting and enforcement of the Development Code.  The Utility Services Department coordinates closely with the Development Services Department.

• Flood and Drainage Documents
• View more information on the West Wash Dam Rehabilitation project 

Truckee River Flood Management Authority

The City of Reno is a managing partner of the Truckee River Flood Management Authority.  Staff of the Utilities Services Department’s Flood and Drainage Section actively participate in planning and engineering for the Truckee River Flood Project.

Floodplain management

Floodplain management is the operation of a community program of corrective and preventative measures for reducing flood damage. These measures take a variety of forms and generally include requirements for zoning, subdivision or building, and special-purpose floodplain ordinances.

A community's agreement to adopt and enforce floodplain management ordinances, particularly with respect to new construction, is an important element in making flood insurance available to home and business owners.

The Flood and Drainage group manages regional components of drainage planning, and drainage issues, interacts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for flood map updates, designs and constructs publicly funded projects, and is the community repository for FEMA flood map information. Most homeowners and developers will typically interact with the City exclusively or primarily though Reno’s Development Services Department, which is responsible for review, permitting and enforcement of the Development Code.

The primary contact at the City for the review of requests for Conditional Letters of Map Change/Letters of Map Change (aka, CLOMR/LOMR or other types of changes) is the Development Services Department. The Development Services Department works with private citizens, developers, engineers and planners. Internally, the Utility Services Department (through the Flood and Drainage group) will provide a parallel review to ensure that regional issues and City interests have been addressed. The City of Reno Community Official signing for Letters of Map Change is Trina Magoon, Utility Services Director. 

Drainage Improvements

Flood and Drainage has primary involvement for those drainage improvements which are funded, designed or constructed by the Utility Services Department, or where any one of these functions is performed in cooperation with other groups or partners. Many other public facilities constructed for drainage purposes are paid for and constructed by local development, with oversight provided by the Development Services Department.