Feds Push National Dam Safety Plan

Public and private operators must work together to increase the safety of the nation's aging dams and reduce the loss of lives and property, advocates and government officials said Thursday in Rockville.

With a backdrop of the earthen dam at Lake Needwood in Rockville and the approaching hurricane season, which began today, county and federal officials and advocates announced a new federal strategy for dam safety.

The strategic plan, which will be released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency later this summer, plots a course for reducing risk and consequences of dam failures over the next five years.

It includes five goals designed to save lives, reduce economic losses, minimize security disruptions and allow communities to recover more quickly in the event of a dam failure. The goals are:

1. Reduce the likelihood of dam failures.
2. Reduce the potential consequences of dam failures.
3. Promote public awareness of the benefits and risks related to dams.
4. Promote research and training for state dam safety and other professionals.
5. Align relevant federal programs to improve dam safety.

Officials highlighted the county and state’s response to storms in late June 2006 that led to Lake Needwood’s water rising 23 feet above normal. Inspections revealed rising water levels downstream and water seeping from the dam located in upper Rock Creek.

Flooding left Needwood Road under four to six feet of water and put the now 47-year-old dam in the global spotlight. A county parks official said a family member overseas saw her standing on the dam in a shot on CNN.

Tim Manning, deputy administrator for Protection and National Preparedness for FEMA, said the response to the 2006 flooding demonstrated the “community approach to preparedness” that FEMA seeks to establish with the new strategic plan.

The county worked with federal and state authorities to respond to the crisis and later revise the county’s dam safety plan.

“There is a continued partnership,” Manning said. “There are triggers in place that as rainfall happens, as storms approach, the dams throughout the county are inspected to ensure the safety of the public downstream. That’s a fantastic example—one that we can and should learn from and apply in communities across the country.” 

Montgomery County has 52 dams, including 16 labeled “high-hazard,” meaning if a dam fails, the risk for catastrophic loss of life is high, said Chris Voss, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

The National Inventory of Dams lists 15,237 high-hazard dams out of 85,000 dams in the United States. The federal government regulates about 11 percent of the dams in the inventory. State and local governments own about 21,000 dams. Most are privately owned. Half are more than 50 years old.

American Rivers, a nonprofit that advocates for river restoration, estimates the number of U.S. dams is more than 100,000.

The organization has found “a surprising number of dams that are posing risks to communities and no longer serve a useful purpose,” said Bob Irvin, president of American Rivers.

Irvin called for a complete inventory of dams and their safety conditions, and funding for dam repair and maintenance or removal.

States also must fully fund dam safety programs and enact better laws, such as legislation pending in Connecticut and Rhode Island to require dam owners to pay for inspections, Irvin said. Such a law in Massachusetts has led to more dams being inspected each year and more dam removals, he said. Dam removals are often the cheapest and most environmentally sound way to ensure public safety, he said.

Aging dams and other water infrastructure amounts to “a mega-billion dollar issue to resolve,” said Sandra Knight, deputy associate administrator for Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration with FEMA. “And so the importance of risk awareness and the importance of dam safety just rises to the top when we know we can’t repair all of our infrastructure in the next few years. In fact, those are the kind of things I worry about at night.”

From 1874 to 1979, there were 28 dam failures in the United States, resulting in 3,424 deaths, according to the Association of State Dam Safety Officials. Those numbers include the failure of the South Fork Dam, which caused the Johnstown flood. From when the National Dam Safety Program was established in 1979, through 2008, dam failures led to about 40 deaths.

The Johnstown flood killed 2,200 people, roughly the same number of county residents evacuated during the 2006 flooding at Lake Needwood. Many of the homes evacuated were in Rockville.

The FEMA plan doesn't seem to be aimed at Montgomery County, said Andy Frank, an environmental engineering supervisor with the county parks department who was assigned to lead the county’s response to the Lake Needwood flooding, including rehabilitation of the dam. Moreover, the federal strategy is aimed at rural or older dams, including those that are privately-owned, where operators might not understand the risks or potential for dam failure, Frank said.

“Montgomery County is so much more organized and pays attention to a lot of these things that I don’t think a lot of other areas do," he said.

The county’s focus on homeland security as part of the national capital region adds to its attention to dam safety, Frank said.

The Maryland Department of Environment performs annual inspections of dams. A county program offers annual training for dam owners and operators, Voss said.

“We think probably this program’s improved because of the event that we had here in 2006,” Voss said.

For emergency preparedness tips, go to http://www.ready.gov.