Document ID: FEMA-2005-0042-0001
Agency: fema
Document Type: Notice
Title: Privacy Act of 1974; National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP); Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) System of Records
Posted Date: 2006-02-15T19:29Z

[Federal Register: February 15, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 31)]
[Notices]               
[Page 7990-7992]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr15fe06-112]                         

[[Page 7990]]

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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Federal Emergency Management Agency

[FEMA-2005-0042]
RIN 1660-ZA11

 
Privacy Act of 1974; National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP); 
Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) System of Records

AGENCY: Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland 
Security.

ACTION: Notice of Privacy Act system of records.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to the Privacy Act of 1974, the Department of 
Homeland Security gives notice that its Federal Emergency Management 
Agency proposes to establish a System of Records, entitled the Letter 
of Map Amendment system, DHS/FEMA/NFIP/LOMA-1. This system of records 
will contain individually identifying information voluntarily provided 
by applicants for Letters of Map Amendments to exclude properties from 
special flood hazard area maps when appropriate.

DATES: The proposed System of Records will be effective March 17, 2006, 
unless comments are received that result in a contrary determination. 
The public is invited to comment on the proposed System of Records.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by FEMA-2005-0042 by one 
of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 

Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
     E-mail: FEMA-RULES@dhs.gov. Include FEMA-2005-0042 in the 
subject line of the message.
     Fax: 202-646-4536. (Not a toll-free number).
     Mail: Please address them to the Rules Docket Clerk, 
Office of General Counsel, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Room 
406, 500 C Street, SW., Washington, DC 20472; Maureen Cooney, Acting 
Chief Privacy Officer, 601 S. 12th Street, Arlington, VA 22202.
     Hand Delivery/Courier: Please address them to the Rules 
Docket Clerk, Office of General Counsel, Federal Emergency Management 
Agency, Room 406, 500 C Street, SW., Washington, DC 20472; Maureen 
Cooney, Acting Chief Privacy Officer, 601 S. 12th Street, Arlington, VA 
22202.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rena Y. Kim, Privacy Act Officer, Room 
406, 500 C Street, SW., Washington, DC 20472; (telephone) (202) 646-
3949; Maureen Cooney, Acting Chief Privacy Officer, Department of 
Homeland Security, 601 S. 12th Street, Arlington, VA 22202-4202 by 
telephone (571) 227-3813 or facsimile (571) 227-4171.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a) embodies 
fair information principles in a statutory framework governing the 
means by which the United States Government collects, maintains, uses 
and disseminates personally identifiable information. The Act applies 
to information that is maintained in a ``system of records.'' A 
``system of records'' is a group of any records under the control of an 
agency from which information is retrieved by the name of the 
individual or by some identifying number, symbol, or other identifying 
particular assigned to the individual. The Letter of Map Amendment 
(LOMA) system established by this Notice is such a system of records.
    The Privacy Act requires each agency to publish in the Federal 
Register a description of the type and character of each system of 
records that the agency maintains, and the routine uses for which such 
information may be disseminated and the purpose for which the system is 
maintained.
    The Letter of Map Amendment system will be used to support FEMA's 
administration of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The 
National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, Public Law 90-448, as amended by 
the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, Public Law 93-234, 
established the NFIP to provide flood insurance in communities that 
voluntarily adopt and enforce floodplain management ordinances that 
meet minimum NFIP requirements. As part of the NFIP, FEMA assists 
communities by producing flood maps that indicate, among other things, 
which properties are located in special flood hazard areas (SFHA).
    Limitations of scale or topographic definition of the source maps 
used to prepare the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) may cause small 
areas that are at or above the one percent annual chance flood 
elevation to be inadvertently shown within the SFHA boundaries. In 
SFHAs, flood insurance is required on properties with federally-backed 
loans. A property outside of an SFHA is not required by FEMA to carry 
flood insurance, and often lenders do not require individuals who are 
financing or refinancing properties located outside of SFHAs to buy 
flood insurance policies. For this reason, individuals seek LOMAs to 
request that FEMA reverse the determination that their property is 
situated in an SFHA.
    FEMA offers administrative procedures to review SFHA designations 
and, with appropriate engineering documentation, to exclude property 
from inadvertent inclusion in an SFHA. FEMA accomplishes this through a 
LOMA, in which FEMA officially states its position whether property is 
located outside of a special flood hazard area. FEMA's regulations for 
issuing LOMAs can be found in 44 CFR Part 70.
    The new LOMA system of records will contain personally identifying 
information voluntarily provided by applicants (individuals and/or 
certifiers as described below) applying for LOMAs.
     An individual is any person financing or refinancing 
structures or parcels of land (hereinafter referred to as ``property'' 
or ``properties'') with a federally-backed loan. Examples of 
individuals are home owners, investors, and property developers.
     A certifier is a Registered Professional Engineer or 
Licensed Land Surveyor who provides technical information, such as 
elevation, to FEMA. Certifiers have the professional credentials to 
analyze engineering information. The certifier may provide information 
either electronically or in hard copy on behalf of the individual.
    The information collected includes the individual's name, mailing 
address, signature, and signature date. The individual can voluntarily 
provide daytime telephone number, e-mail address, and fax number--which 
are not required--but which enables FEMA to contact the individual 
should questions arise. In addition, the certifier is required to 
provide name, professional license number and expiration date, company 
name, property address or legal description, e-mail address, and 
business telephone number. The certifier can voluntarily provide a fax 
number that enables FEMA to fax documents related to the LOMA.
    The information will be collected in hard copy format and 
maintained at FEMA's repository located at 847 South Pickett Street, 
Alexandria, VA 22034, or electronically through the proposed mapping 
information platform (MIP). The collected information will be 
maintained either as paper records or computerized files retrieved by 
an individual's property address or legal description and/or case 
number.
    In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552a(r), DHS has provided a report of 
this new system of records to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
and to Congress.

[[Page 7991]]

System Name:
    Letter of Map Amendment System (LOMA), DHS/FEMA/NFIP/LOMA-1.

Security Classification:
    Unclassified.

System Location:
    Electronic: Solutions Delivery Center (SDC), 3039 Cornwallis Road, 
Building 301, Dock 85/86, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709. 
Paper: FEMA's Map Modernization Library, 847 South Pickett Street, 
Alexandria VA 22034.

Categories of individuals covered by the system:
    The system covers only applicants (individuals and/or certifiers) 
who are seeking a letter of map amendment (LOMA).

Categories of records in the system:
    There are three ways to apply for a LOMA. They include the paper 
only MT-1 form, online MT-EZ, and electronic LOMA (eLOMA). The 
associated categories of records include:
     Individual's name
     Individual's mailing address
     Individual's signature
     Individual's signature date
     Certifier's (registered professional engineer or licensed 
land surveyor) name
     Certifier's professional license number
     Certifier's professional license expiration date
     Certifier's company name
     Individual's property address
     Individual's legal property description
     Certifier's business telephone number

Authority for maintenance of the system:
    The National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, Public Law 90-448, as 
amended by the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, Public Law 93-
234.

Purpose:
    This system is maintained for the purpose of determining an 
applicant's eligibility for LOMAs. An applicant can be a private 
individual or a certified professional.

Routine uses of records maintained in the system, including categories 
of users and the purposes of such uses:
    In addition to those disclosures generally permitted under 5 U.S.C. 
552a(b) of the Privacy Act, all or a portion of the records or 
information contained in this system may be disclosed outside DHS as a 
routine use pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(3) as follows:
    A. To an agency, organization, or individual for the purposes of 
performing authorized audit or oversight operations.
    B. To a congressional office from the record of an individual in 
response to an inquiry from that congressional office made at the 
request of the individual to whom the record pertains.
    C. To contractors, grantees, experts, consultants, students, and 
others performing or working on a contract, service, grant, cooperative 
agreement, or other assignment for the Federal government, when 
necessary to accomplish an agency function related to this.
    D. Where a record, either on its face or in conjunction with other 
information, indicates a violation or potential violation of law--
criminal, civil or regulatory--the relevant records may be referred to 
an appropriate Federal, State, territorial, tribal, local, 
international, or foreign agency law enforcement authority or other 
appropriate agency charged with investigating or prosecuting such a 
violation or enforcing or implementing such law.
    E. To the Department of Justice (DOJ) or other Federal agency 
conducting litigation or in proceedings before any court, adjudicative 
or administrative body, when: (a) DHS, or (b) any employee of DHS in 
his/her official capacity, or (c) any employee of DHS in his/her 
individual capacity where DOJ or DHS has agreed to represent the 
employee, or (d) the United States or any agency thereof, is a party to 
the litigation or has an interest in such litigation.
    F. To the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) or 
other Federal government agencies pursuant to records management 
inspections being conducted under the authority of 44 U.S.C. Sections 
2904 and 2906.

Disclosure to consumer reporting agencies:
    Privacy Act information may be reported to consumer reporting 
agencies pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(12).

Policies and Practices for storing, retrieving, accessing, retaining, 
and disposing of records in the system.
Storage:
    Official records in this system are stored on paper at the FEMA Map 
Modernization Library, located at 847 South Pickett Street, Alexandria 
VA 22034. Electronic records will be stored at the FEMA's limited 
access facility--Service Delivery Center, located at 3039 East 
Cornwallis Road, Raleigh NC 27709. Computerized records are stored in a 
database server in a secured file server room. Personally identifying 
information is appropriately stored in accordance with the DHS 
Information Technology Security Program Handbook.

Retrievability:
    Records are retrieved by the individual's property address or, if 
there is no address, by the legal description of the property. Records 
are also retrieved by the individual's uniquely identifying case 
number.

Safeguards:
    Safeguards include restricting access to authorized personnel who 
have a need to know, using locks, and password protection 
identification features. File areas are locked after normal duty hours, 
and the facilities are protected by security personnel or technology 
such as security cameras.
    Use of the database and physical records will be carefully 
monitored by the system administrators and the library administrators 
at:
     Paper: FEMA Map Modernization Library, 847 South Pickett 
Street, Alexandria VA 22034
     Electronic: Service Delivery Center, 3039 East Cornwallis 
Road, Raleigh NC 27709
    The system has an audit trail of changes made to the application 
and the user identification of who made the changes. Electronic records 
are also safeguarded by software programs that monitor traffic to 
identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or 
otherwise cause damage. Unauthorized attempts to upload or change 
information are prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer 
Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure 
Protection Act.

Retention and Disposal:
    The retention schedule has been approved by NARA. The NARA 
authority is N1-311-86-1 2A2c; the retention period is 20-years. 
Electronic copies of MT-EZs and eLOMAs will be printed and retained in 
the same manner as hard copies.

System Manager(s) and Address:
    Paper: FEMA Map Modernization Library, 847 South Pickett Street, 
Alexandria VA 22034. Electronic: Service Delivery Center, 3039 East 
Cornwallis Road, Raleigh NC 27709.

Notification Procedure:
    A request for access to records in this system may be made by 
writing to the System Manager, identified above, or to

[[Page 7992]]

the Privacy Act Officer, in conformance with 6 CFR part 5, subpart B 
and 44 CFR part 6, which provides the rules for requesting access to 
Privacy Act records.

Record Access Procedure:
    The procedures for individuals to gain access to their own 
information are listed both in FEMA's and the DHS's Privacy Act 
regulations, 44 CFR part 6 and 6 CFR part 5, subpart B. Requests for 
Privacy Act protected information must be made in writing, and clearly 
marked as a ``Privacy Act Request.'' The name of the requester, the 
nature of the record sought, and the required verification of identity 
must be clearly indicated. Requests should be sent to: Privacy Act 
Officer, DHS/FEMA, Office of General Counsel, Room 406, 500 C Street, 
SW., Washington DC 20472.

Contesting Record Procedures:
    Same as Record Access Procedure (above). State clearly and 
concisely the information being contested, the reasons for contesting 
it, and the proposed change to the record.

Record Source Categories:
    The information will come from individuals and certifiers.

Exemption Claimed for the System:
    None.

    Dated: February 9, 2006.
Maureen Cooney,
Acting Chief Privacy Officer, Department of Homeland Security.
 [FR Doc. E6-2122 Filed 2-14-06; 8:45 am]