February 20, 2001
Diana Cross
(208) 378-5020

Reclamation and Others Practice Emergency Procdures at Grand Coulee Dam

The Bureau of Reclamation’s Grand Coulee Power Office, along with other public safety agencies, will respond to an imaginary emergency scenario involving the dam in early March. In the unlikely event of a failure or overtopping at Grand Coulee Dam, human lives and property in the flood pathway would be endangered. Large releases of water would cause serious flooding all the way to Astoria, Oregon.

Development of emergency action plans and the testing of those plans through an emergency exercise is conducted periodically at all Reclamation facilities. Reclamation officials and involved emergency response organizations must maintain their level of emergency preparedness to a degree that will effectively save lives and reduce property damage.

"The purpose of the exercise is to ensure staff are fully aware of their responsibilities in an emergency and ensure that procedures are tested and updated as necessary," said Dave Lyngholm, Manager of Grand Coulee Power Office . "We are very appreciative that so many downstream communities are participating with us in this exercise."

The exercise, which will begin Friday, March 9, presumes an event that would take about one week to run its course. During that period, Reclamation and cooperating participants will place actual notification calls to County, State, and other Federal agencies. Local Emergency Management offices will be responding to the scenario during various days of that week. Warning and evacuation planning and implementation are the responsibility of the downstream local authorities having jurisdiction in areas that would be flooded.

Participants and partners in this exercise include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Chelan, Douglas, and Grant County Public Utility Districts; Washington and Oregon State offices of Emergency Management and other state departments; the Confederated Colville Tribes; Bonneville Power Administration; National Weather Service; Federal Emergency Management Agency; county emergency directors, and local emergency personnel.

Grand Coulee Dam, owned and operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, is a 550-foot high concrete structure on the Columbia River in central Washington State. The total storage capacity of the reservoir is about 10 million acre-feet of water, when full.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Please make your reporters aware of our "live" exercise beginning March 9 and advise them that all National Weather Service and Bureau of Reclamation emergency messages concerning our dams are only imaginary to drive the exercise. All notifications and emergency messages will begin and end with "THIS IS AN EXERCISE MESSAGE".