Oregon’s 90-year-old dam safety statute undergoing overhaul

Oregon’s dam safety regulations are getting an overhaul, for the first time in nearly a century.

A bill pending in the Legislature would rewrite the laws governing construction, inspections and enforcement authority for hundreds of state-regulated dams.

The bill would increase the state’s power to force owners of aging, dangerous dams to do maintenance and make repairs. And it would require state approval and oversight of all new dam construction and removal of old dams.

“Dams can pose a hazard to the public, to people, lives, property, infrastructure,” Racquel Rancier, a policy coordinator for the Oregon Water Resources Department told a House committee Tuesday. Currently, “If a dam is failing, we are in the position of saying ‘please’.”

At the same time, the proposal would give the state more leeway to help dam owners come up with fixes, rather than moving directly to enforcement.

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Decades-old regulations

Nearly 1,200 dams in Oregon are large enough to be subject to safety statutes.

The federal government regulates 237 of those, and they are generally well maintained.

Oregon oversees safety at the remaining 953, from the 140-foot high Berry Creek Dam in Douglas County to the 10-foot high Findlay Reservoir in Marion County.

Oregon’s dam safety laws were written in 1929, and haven’t been significantly changed since, Rancier said.

“It’s scary, truly,” Rep. Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie, said.

Seventy-five state regulated dams are deemed “high hazard potential,” meaning failure could result in loss of life. Another 149 are designed “significant hazard potential,” meaning failure could result in significant environmental damage or economic disruption.

Oregon considers only 31 of its high hazard dams to be in satisfactory condition.

Twenty-five are rated fair, 10 poor, and seven unsatisfactory, meaning they could be declared unsafe if repairs aren’t made soon. Two dams are still being analyzed.

House Bill 2085 would allow the Water Resources Department to impose a fee, of as much as $8,500, on owners of proposed new dams for a state plan and engineering review.

It would make it easier for the state to get a warrant to inspect dams when an owner is unwilling to grant permission.

And it allows the state to require owners of significant or high hazard dams to address poor maintenance. Currently, the state can’t require action until the dam becomes unsafe and threatens life or property.

Other provisions of the bill still are being negotiated with farmers and other dam owners. One amendment has been proposed, and others are expected.

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No funding provisions

The bill doesn’t contain any provisions for helping owners of dangerous dams – some of which are family farmers or small cities – pay for repairs.

Two dams in Newport, for example, are on the state’s “unsatisfactory condition” list. If they fail, flooding could wipe out much of the town and leave residents without a drinking-water source.

But the city’s 10,000 residents can’t shoulder the estimated $70 million replacement cost, Tim Gross, Newport’s public works director, told the committee.

Legislators are considering a separate bill, Senate Bill 894, that would provide $44 million from the state general fund toward Newport’s dam project.

Farmers and other small-dam owner will need help as well, Mary Anne Cooper, of the Oregon Farm Bureau said.

“Most folks totally lack the resources to do that,” she said.

The bill also doesn’t address Oregon’s own funding challenges.

A 2017 analysis by a regional Federal Energy Regulatory Commission engineer found that Oregon has 40 high hazard dams per inspector, more than any Western state except Nevada, and more than the national average.

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Oregon’s inspectors usually do only a visual assessment during inspections, with no engineering determination of a dam’s safety.

And the state is weak in enforcement, permitting and completion of emergency action plans, the analysis by Doug Johnson concluded.

The Water Resources Department has proposed a separate state budget package that would allow it to spend $1 million over the next biennium to contract for studies of dams for earthquake, flood and structural safety issues.

“Very few high hazard dams have had a comprehensive assessment of their safety,” the department wrote in its request.

It also proposes hiring a professional engineer to ensure dam hazard ratings are accurate, at a cost of $314,051 per biennium.

Dam safety review fees would cover $46,975 of the $1.3 million total cost, while the rest would come from the general fund.

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Contact the reporter at tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/Tracy_Loew