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Marana has completed a major step in its battle with the Federal Emergency Management Agency with the submittal of a drainage study that town officials hope will keep nearly all of a 19-square mile area of town out of a high risk flood zone.

The seven-month study, which to date has cost more than $300,000, shows that only about three square miles of the area in question should fall within a flood zone, and therefore would require homeowners with federally-insured mortgages to purchase flood insurance.

“This is, by far, better than any of our previous studies we’ve had,” Marana town engineer Keith Brann said. “It’s very much money well spent.”

Marana officials will brief the town council on the results of the study during a special meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Brann said it is expected that FEMA will complete its review of the study by Oct. 1, with new flood maps approved as soon as November.

Town officials estimate that only 250 existing structures and 600 currently platted lots would fall within the flood zone, compared with 2,000 structures and 10,000 lots from the area FEMA identified.

“I think we’re in really good shape,” Mayor Ed Honea said. “I think this is going to save our residents $3 million a year in flood insurance.”

FEMA officials informed Marana in July 2007 that, following a nationwide process of remapping flood plains, it had determined a huge chunk of town was in what FEMA calls a Special Flood Hazard Area, where there is at least a one percent chance of heavy flooding in any given year.