I just spoke with the local circuit rider for the Department of Environmental Protection. Her home is down the street from my office and she is fortunate to have water view. A few months ago after speaking with her about the flood plain, I sent her a sketch based on the aerial topos showing that the floodplain will soon be at her back door. It's going from 9 to 15.
Yesterday she e-mailed with a cute comment: Did my floodplain recede? So I had to call.
Me. What did you use to determine this? Am I using the wrong map?
Her. Well, the Cape Cod Commission and the Town of Chatham GIS both show the old floodplain and the new. The Commission has a colorful comparison and it shows the old floodplain up to the road and the new behind the house.
Me. Oh thank goodness. That GIS data is crap. The old floodplains are +/- 30 feet and +/- whatever the GIS monkey digitized.
Her. Oh, so why do they produce this information?
Me. Exactly.
What is a circuit rider? In Mass do you still have people on horse back checking the wetlands?
She is responsible for reviewing the filings to ensure completeness, then issuing the DEP file number.
She also hosts seminars and provides guidance to Commissions, Agents and Applicants. She is my go to at the DEP; she typically does not have the answer but she will track it down in short order.
I will have to ask if she rides a horse around wetlands.
> She is responsible for reviewing the filings to ensure completeness, then issuing the DEP file number.
>
clerk work, no issues?
> She also hosts seminars and provides guidance to Commissions, Agents and Applicants. She is my go to at the DEP; she typically does not have the answer but she will track it down in short order.
>
This sounds like this is an excellent opportunity for you to teach her about accuracy and quality of terrain models... And also how the "true" vertical intersects that rough model.