Bureau of Reclamation: Safety of Dams

Safety of Dams

Contact: Peter Soeth, (303) 445-3615

The Dam Safety Program continues to be one of Reclamation's highest priorities. The program helps ensure the safety and reliability of Reclamation dams to protect the downstream public. Approximately 50 percent of Reclamation's dams were built between 1900 and 1950, and approximately 90 percent of the dams were built before currently used state-of-the-art design and construction practices. Aging dams, which lack state-of-the-art structural reliability features, place a great reliance on monitoring, examinations, and re-analyses as ongoing risk management activities to assure safe dam performance. A strong Dam Safety Program must be maintained to assure acceptable performance within Reclamation's inventory of dams and related facilities. Reclamation will undertake corrective actions expeditiously when unreasonable public risk is identified. The Program requires dams to be examined by specialists every three years, with additional internal reviews performed annually. The FY 2009 budget request of $91.2 million represents an increase of $15.4 million from the FY 2008 funding.

Initiation of Safety of Dams Corrective Actions: Of the budget request of $91.2 million, $71.5 million is for modifications at the following locations. These projects are planned to continue in FY 2009:

Folsom Dam, Central Valley Project, California
Deer Flat Dam, Boise Project, Idaho
Stony Gorge Dam, Orland Project, California
Deer Creek Dam, Provo River Project, Utah
Scofield Dam, Scofield Project, Utah
A.V. Watkins Dam, Weber Basin Project, Utah

In addition, pre-construction activities will be underway at other dams where Reclamation has determined a need to reduce safety risks, including:

Whiskeytown Dam, Central Valley Project, California
Glendo Dam, P-SMBP, Oregon Trail Division, Wyoming
Echo Dam, Weber River Project, Utah

Safety Evaluation of Existing Dams
The FY 2009 budget requests $18.5 million for completing safety evaluations of existing dams, including performance monitoring, examinations, analyses, field data investigations, technical studies, and development activities.

Department of the Interior Dam Safety Program
As the lead agency for the Department of the Interior's Dam Safety Program, the President's FY 2009 budget request includes $1.2 million to provide guidance to other Interior bureaus for their Dam Safety Programs.