Washington State Department of Ecology

Publication Summary

Title	Status of High & Significant Hazard Dams in WA with Safety Deficiencies/1998 Report to Legislature
Month-Year Published	January 1999
Online Availability	not available
Short Description	This report updates information on the condition of the 296 dams in Washington which are situated above populated areas and are regulated by the Dam Saftety Office of the Department of Ecology. The report also presents an update on progress to repair or improve dams that were found to be deficient during periodic safety inspections. (Also see abstract below)
Publication Number	99-150
Author(s)	Johnson, Doug
Print Availability	Request from the program. Available in hard copy only.
Number of pages	17
Keywords	dam, dams, hazard, Inspection, legislature, safety
Related Web Content	Dam Safety Office
Related Publications	Title	Relationship
	2000 Report to the Legislature: Status of High and Significant Hazard Dams in Washington with Safety Deficiencies	similar topic
Abstract	Long Description
	This report updates information on the condition of the 296 dams in Washington which are situated above populated areas and are regulated by the Dam Saftety Office of the Department of Ecology. The report also presents an update on progress to repair or improve dams that were found to be deficient during periodic safety inspections. The following three key messages summarize the status of dam safety in Washinton in 1998: Ecology staff continue to work with owners to repair unsafe dams, as 14 dams were repaired in 1997-1998, reducing the number of unsafe projects to 29. With the current dam safety staffing, it is anticipated that high hazard dam inspections will barely keep up with a 6-year cycle, while inspections on significant hazard dams will lag further behind to a 12-year cycle. Both inspection cycles are much longer than recommended in federal dam safety standards. Continued population growth in Washington will adversely affect dam safety. First, increased development will result in more dams being built, increasing the plan review workload for Ecology, and taking time away from periodic inspections. Second, development occurring downstream from dams will place more citizens potentially at risk from a failure.

This page last updated November 4, 2009

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