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David Achterberg
Director, Security, Safety and Law Enforcement

Dave Achterberg was appointed to the position of Director for Security, Safety, and Law Enforcement in August 2006, after having served as the Assistant Director since September 2003. This office is responsible for a variety of Reclamation risk management programs including Dam Safety, Building Seismic Safety, Safety and Occupational Health, Security, Law Enforcement, Continuity of Operations, Emergency Operations, and Emergency Disaster Recovery. In carrying out these programs, Dave works closely with the Department of the Interior and Reclamation’s Regional Directors to implement risk reduction and public protection actions at Reclamation facilities. Dave currently serves as a Department of the Interior representative on the Dams Government Coordinating Council which is led by the Department of Homeland Security. He is also designated as Reclamation’s Director for Law Enforcement and serves on the Departmental Law Enforcement Board of Advisors.

He began working for Reclamation in 1975 performing construction inspection activities throughout eastern South Dakota during the summers while attending college. He permanently joined Reclamation in 1980 where he performed dam spillway and outlet works design, and concrete dam design at the Engineering and Research Center in Denver, Colorado. His activities included dam safety analysis, dam safety modification designs, and designs for several new dams. He began working in Reclamation’s Dam Safety Office in 1985 and has held a variety of project and program management positions.

In 1994, he became the Chief of the Dam Safety Office where he was responsible for monitoring, inspection, analysis, and dam safety rehabilitation for Reclamation’s 248 high and significant hazard facilities. As the Chief of the Dam Safety Office, he was responsible for initiating and implementing the use of risk analysis as a basis of decision making on dam safety issues. This initiative has made Reclamation a national leader in the use of risk analysis for dam safety decision making.

Dave was appointed to be Reclamation’s Security Coordinator after September 11, 2001, where he was responsible for a variety of new security initiatives within Reclamation which included the utilization of risk based approaches to security. In addition, he was responsible for interagency coordination including other major Federal dam owners and regulators. Subsequently, Dave was appointed to be the Assistant Director for SSLE in 2003 where he continued to work on a variety of risk management, emergency management, security, and law enforcement initiatives.

He has served as the Department of the Interior representative to the Interagency Committee on Dam Safety, (ICODS) from 1994 through 2002, and as the Chair for the ICODS Subcommittee on Research from 1997 through 2001. He is a member of the United States Society on Dams, (USSD) and served as the Vice-Chair for the Dam Safety Committee for USSD from 1997 through 2003 and as a Co-Chair for the National Dam Safety Program Security Task Force after September 11, 2001.

In these positions, Dave has kept Reclamation in a leadership role on dam safety and security within the Federal government and the dam sector.

Dave is a registered professional engineer in the state of Colorado and holds a Bachelor's of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University where he also attended graduate school and studied river mechanics, sediment transport, water quality, and dam design.

Updated: December 21, 2011