SPARKS — A soft winter breeze made ripples in the few small ponds in Bob Rayppy’s Wingfield Springs neighborhood Thursday. Meanwhile, the ditch immediately behind his house was dry, littered with twigs and brush.

While anyone strolling through the neighborhood might think the water peaceful, it and the ditch are causing a headache for Rayppy, the city of Sparks and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Rayppy’s need for flood insurance on his Wingfield Springs home has ebbed and flowed over the years. Some years his house was in a flood zone, meaning costly flood insurance, while other years it was taken out. Now, once again, it is back in a flood zone and his mortgage lender is requiring an almost $2,000 per year policy.

“This whole thing is very frustrating,” the Wingfield Springs resident of more than 11 years said.

City officials say they are working on Rayppy’s problem, gathering maps and elevation information to prove that the man’s home is not in danger of flooding and does not require the flood insurance.

“We are compiling information, sending it to FEMA and saying you have made a mistake, take this property out of the flood zone,” according to Neil Krutz, Sparks’ community development director. “The flood zone line was relocated onto people that it possibly shouldn’t have been.”

According to FEMA officials, the problem may have started when the neighborhood housing developers put in improvements to try and decrease the possibility of flooding; for example, realigning a ditch here or putting in a drain there.

“A lot of this area was flood prone when developers first started building,” said Ray Lenaburg, chief of the FEMA’s risk analysis branch.

This meant that Rayppy’s home was immediately put into the flood zone when he moved in.

“Developers did improvements because it was a flood prone area,” Lenaburg continued. “They sent it (their documented improvements) in and showed that their improvements were adequate to provide protection. They did physical changes to revise changes on FEMA’s maps.”

Now that the map says that Rayppy is back in the flood zone, the burden falls on him and planners from the city of Sparks to prove to FEMA and Rayppy’s mortgage lender that his house isn’t in danger.

The federal agency aims to update flood zone maps every five years. But with thousands of acres to map and limited resources, Lenaburg said remapping every flood zone in the United States is a dream.

However, when developers put in improvements, they must file those changes with FEMA, meaning a map revision, Lenaburg said. Such was the case with Rayppy’s neighborhood’s up and down flood insurance.

“Much of the burden is on local developers to keep our maps updated,” Lenaburg added.

Another ripple is added to the flood insurance story when mortgage lenders are involved.

“If any portion of the property (versus the house itself) is in the flood zone then they must purchase flood insurance,” said Jane Critchfield, FEMA regional flood insurance specialist for the Nevada area. “If the house is out, then the lender will say then you don’t need a flood policy. … But the lender controls that. If the lender says the house itself is not in the flood zone but they would feel better if the property was insured, then they could make the homeowner buy a preferred $300 per year policy.”

“All it takes is one little flood,” Lenaburg added.

Rayppy started off in the flood zone 11 years ago when he moved into his home, paying $250 per year for flood insurance. Two years later, FEMA redid its maps and took the homeowner out of the flood zone.

When those improvements went in, Rayppy and his pocketbook got a break from the mandatory flood insurance charges. The smooth sailing continued for nine years before Rayppy got a letter from his mortgage lender.

“Last June I got a letter from my lender telling me I had 45 days to get flood insurance,” Rayppy said. “What we are paying now is $1,897 per year. That is bad compared to what I had a few years ago.”

According to Lenaburg, more than one-third of FEMA’s flood relief claims come from areas that are outside their marked flood zones.

“We always suggest that people have flood insurance,” he said.