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Department of Ecology News Release - March 6, 2009
09-055
OLYMPIA – The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) is beginning a second round of dam inspections with letters being delivered statewide to owners of dams and reservoirs built without Ecology permits.
"We are continuing our efforts to inspect dams that may be at risk of failure and pose a hazard to downstream homeowners," said Doug Johnson, Ecology's dam safety supervisor.
Ecology will be sending letters to the owners of 141 structures built without pre-approved plans and construction inspections that may be "significant hazard" dams. These dams, identified in available aerial photos, appear large enough to hold at least 10 acre-feet of water (3.25 million gallons) and are located upstream from one or two homes. The letters ask for more information on the dams before Ecology engineers inspect the structures on the ground.
In December, Ecology completed inspections of 95 possible "high hazard" dams, built without permits upstream from three or more homes. These also were initially identified in publicly available aerial photos and 11 of them were found to be in need of immediate repairs. Preliminary repairs have been completed on five of these dams (three in Yakima County) to protect public safety, four will have construction under way soon on spillways and the owners of two dams are cooperating with Ecology on plans to prevent the structures from failing.
Unpermitted dams and reservoirs that will be inspected through this summer include frost control ponds used in farming, recreational ponds, dairy waste lagoons and sewage lagoons.
Legislators and county commissioners across the state have been notified of Ecology's efforts to inspect and permit these dams. County emergency management agencies and legislators will be copied on Notices of Correction sent to owners of significant hazard dams needing immediate repairs.
Ecology's inspection and permitting program is designed to prevent the kind of catastrophic dam failure that has occurred in other states such as the March 14, 2006, collapse of the Kaloko dam on Kauai, Hawaii, which killed seven people.
The 141 significant hazard dams included in the current round of inspections are located in 32 counties. Counties with the highest numbers of these unpermitted dams include: Yakima (20); Grant (15); Franklin (8); Skagit (8); Clark (6); Pierce (6); and Whatcom (6).
To stay in compliance with the Legislature's hiring freeze, Ecology will complete inspections of the significant hazard dams without additional personnel or contracting for inspection services.
Inspections of unpermitted dams have dramatically increased the workload of Ecology's Dam Safety Office. As structures are added to Ecology's inventory of more than 1,000 dams, Gov. Chris Gregoire has asked the 2009 Legislature to add two dam inspectors to Ecology's Water Resources Program to be paid for with existing permit and inspection fees.
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Media Contacts:
Dan Partridge, 360-407-7139; cell 360-480-5722; e-mail:
dpar461@ecy.wa.gov
Doug Johnson, dam safety supervisor, 360-407-6623, e-mail
djsd461@ecy.wa.gov
For more information: www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/dams/dss.html
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
