RE: The Fiscal Year 1999 Appropriations for the National Dam Safety Program.

Given Before the Subcommitte on VA-HUD-Indpendent Agencies, Committee on Appropriations, United States House of Representatives, April 21, 1998

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: I would like to thank you for the invitation to appear before you today to discuss the administration’s fiscal 1999 budget request for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) dam safety program.

My name is Raymond J. Krizek, Ph.D. I currently serve as the President of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) Geo-Institute. I am the Stanley F. Pepper Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Master of Project Management Program at Northwestern University.

ASCE was founded in 1852 and is the country’s oldest national civil engineering organization. It represents more than 120,000 civil engineers in private practice, government, industry and academia who are dedicated to the advancement of the science and profession of civil engineering.

ASCE has a long standing interest in the FEMA mitigation program. This program provides for the development, coordination and implementation of policies, plans and programs to eliminate or reduce the long-term risk to life and property from natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes and dam failures.

First, I would like to begin by thanking the members of this subcommittee for their support last year in providing the full funding of $2.9 million for the National Dam Safety Program. This program establishes, under the direction of FEMA, the first national program to prevent dam failures.

ASCE believes the $2.9 million is a solid starting point for states to begin improving their dam safety programs. However, dam safety is an ongoing effort and much more work needs to be done to ensure that the nation’s 93,000 dams continue to work effectively and safety.

The Administration's fiscal 1999 budget request of $1.5 million falls short of the funds needed to help repair our aging dams and to implement the National Dam Safety Program. It is also well below the $3.9 million authorized in the Act for FY 1999. This request is an alarming step backwards for public safety at a time when states are just beginning to implement the program and struggling with minimal budgets and staff.

A handful of states do not even have adequate programs in place to regulate the safety of their dams. The National Inventory of Dams revealed that a majority of high or significant hazard dams do not have Emergency Action Plans in place which would mean the difference between timely downstream evacuation and disaster.

For these reasons, ASCE respectfully requests the subcommittee’s support for additional funding of $2.4 million in FY 1999 for FEMA to implement the program in accordance with the Act. This modest, yet vital funding would help reduce the risks to life and property due to dam failures by providing states with resources to improve their dam safety programs.

The following activities will be funded through this appropriation:

$2 million for incentive grants to states to upgrade their dam safety programs;

$500,000 for training State Dam Safety Staff;

$1 million for research to improve the techniques and equipment for rapid and effective dam inspections; and

$400,000 for salaries and expenses for FEMA to administer the program.

Dam failures affect thousands of lives and cost millions of dollars. The 1976 failure of the Teton Dam resulted in damages of $900 million and 11 fatalities. The failure in July 1982 of Lawn Lake Dam, a small earth embankment produced $35 million in damages and three fatalities. In 1996, the failure of a small dam in New Hampshire resulted in one death and $5.5 million in damages. Reports show that an alarming number of dams across the country are showing signs of age and lack proper maintenance. The American Society of Civil Engineers, in its recently released 1998 report card on the nation’s infrastructure, estimates that it will take over $1 billion to rehabilitate the 1,800 dams that have been identified as unsafe in the United States.

Downstream development is increasing. Most older dams were built without adequate spillways to release water in heavy rains, which causes water to run over the top. Inadequate spillway capacities are the most common deficiency and a major cause of dam failures. Dam safety officials estimate that thousands of dams are at risk of failing or are disasters waiting to happen. One-fourth of all U.S. dams are more than 50 years old, and by the year 2020, that figure is expected to increase to 85 percent.

Approximately 9,280 regulated dams nationwide are considered to be high-hazard (category I), meaning that their failure will likely cause loss of life and significant property damage. Even more significant are the roughly 1,800 regulated dams that are considered to be unsafe. Many of these are also in high-hazard locations. This means they have deficiencies which leave them more susceptible to failure. Thirty-five percent of the high-hazard dams have a last inspection date prior to 1990. Thousands of other dams are in need of rehabilitation to keep them from becoming unsafe. These repair projects are on hold because of a lack of funding.

Equally as alarming is the fact that many dams built more than 50 to 100 years ago have been abandoned and the owners are unknown. These dams are not inventoried, inspected or regulated, and no one is volunteering to pay for their repair.

In Alabama, a rupture recently caused the levee on a small creek in the southeastern part of the state to fail. Two gaping holes, each nearly 100-ft long, were torn out of the 12-ft-tall levee, leaving the tiny community of Elba under 8-ft of water. Officials believe that the lake, which was impounded about two years ago, did not have adequate spillway to handle torrential rains that drenched the area days before the accident. Some believe that the state's failure to adopt dam safety legislation made a bad situation worse.

Many civil engineers involved in the operation, maintenance, and inspection of the nation’s dams know all too well the risks associated with unsafe dams in high-hazard locations. In North Carolina alone, there are 874 dams in "high-hazard" locations with 40 classified as unsafe.

A complete chart of states' dam inventory data is included at the end of this written testimony.

In closing, ASCE strongly urges this subcommittee to recognize the benefits of this modest investment in public safety by providing additional funding of $2.4 million in order for FEMA to implement the National Dam Safety Program.

ASCE looks forward to working with the subcommittee and its staff on this critical public safety issue.

I would be happy to respond to any questions you might have at this time.