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FEMA would have to change its mapping procedures if it failed to give Marana officials extra time to prove the town is not in a flood plain under legislation Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said Friday she will introduce.

"This is my top priority," Giffords told packed council chambers at the Marana Municipal Complex. "We're not going to let this rest until we come up with an adequate solution."

Giffords and other members of Arizona's congressional delegation will meet next week with officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ask that Marana be given up to 24 months to conduct hydrological studies to determine whether a 10-square-mile area on the north side of town is actually at risk of flooding, she said.

As it stands now, the area in question would be moved into a high-risk flood zone category as of Sept. 30, 2008. Homeowners there would have to buy flood insurance.

"FEMA is supposed to help when there is a disaster," said Randy Roberts, a resident of the master-planned Gladden Farms community in the middle of the affected area. "In this case, FEMA has caused a disaster."

FEMA, through an ongoing national map modernization program, has determined that structures such as the Central Arizona Project, the Union Pacific railroad tracks and Interstate 10 have levee-like characteristics. But since those structures were not built to official levee standards, FEMA says they cannot be considered able to divert potential sheet flooding from the Tortolita Mountains in northeast Marana.

Giffords called the new flood maps FEMA is about to issue "erroneous." Since FEMA requires municipalities to show proof they don't belong in a flood plain, Giffords is asking FEMA to give Marana two years to deliver that proof.

"We're trying to get FEMA to make an administrative decision," she said. "If that doesn't happen, we're very willing to pursue legislative action."

The Marana Town Council is to vote on a resolution to commission a hydrological study at its Nov. 6 council meeting.

A proper study of the area will cost about $1 million and will be financed jointly by local land developers and homebuilders as well as the town, said Marana Town Manager Mike Reuwsaat.

"That will come out of, quite frankly, our rainy day fund, because we don't have flooding here," Reuwsaat quipped.

Giffords said potential legislation affecting FEMA could be attached to a bill being put together by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., that will call for a massive overhaul of the country's National Flood Insurance Program.

She said officials in Arizona are "ahead of the curve" in responding to FEMA's actions, noting that politicians representing parts of California that are to be put in a flood plain aren't making the same efforts to save their areas.

"There are communities in California that have been affected, and they are just basically rolling over," Giffords said.