2024 Dam Safety Award Recipients

National Rehabilitation Project of the Year

This award recognizes developers of a unique remedial design that advances the state-of-the-art in the field of dam safety and exemplifies the high professional engineering standards that dam safety requires. The National Rehabilitation Project of the Year award is organized by the Annual Award Committee, and the Board of Directors approves the recipient.

Lake Williams Dam

The York Water Company (Owners)
Gannett Fleming (Designers)
Kinsley Construction (Contractor)

Nestled in the heart of York County, Pennsylvania, the Lake Williams Dam was built by The York Water Company in 1912 to support a growing town's need for manufacturing, fire protection, and drinking water. The original earthen embankment dam was constructed using nascent steam technology and included a concrete core wall, a trailblazing feature for a dam of the time.

In recent years, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection updated its dam safety regulations, including probable maximum flood (PMF) conditions, which rendered the original dam's spillway undersized. Despite the dam's structural soundness, the requirement to safely pass a PMF of over 107,000 cubic feet per second — an exponential increase to its designed capacity and substantially greater than the 1972 storm of record — prompted a robust engineering response. While addressing the discharge capacity, York Water also seized the opportunity to concurrently improve other elements of the dam, such as the lack of underdrainage in the original spillway, the spillway's foundation on embankment fill as opposed to bedrock, the absence of filters downstream of the spillway, and aging bascule gates.

While working under an expedited schedule, the project team, which included owner York Water, engineer Gannett Fleming, and contractor Kinsley Construction, reimagined a dam that would meet modern design, safety, and performance standards and ensure its continued role in providing essential water services for another century.

Key to the rehabilitation was the introduction of a labyrinth spillway built with a roller-compacted concrete gravity section founded on bedrock and designed to handle significantly higher discharge capacities than the original dam. Other major structural enhancements include a non-overflow gravity section and advanced seepage management features. These improvements were rooted in a design process that valued thorough analysis, ingenuity, and respect for the dam's historical elements, including its original concrete core wall.

The Lake Williams Dam rehabilitation was also designed to minimize environmental impacts, enhancing ecological conservation by creating additional wildlife habitats and aquatic environments. This included introducing a 1-foot pool elevation increase, which added more than 60 million gallons, generating 3 acres of open-water habitat, and forming islands to support diverse and protected species. The project also focused on aesthetic improvements, such as concealing exposed dam armoring with locally sourced topsoil and reshaping the landscape to blend with the natural surroundings, further underscoring York Water's commitment to environmental and visual harmony.

Structurally complete by December 2023, it is one of the few structures of its kind and the only one in Pennsylvania designed to this standard. This project exemplifies how contemporary engineering and proactive planning can transform 20th-century infrastructure into modern models of safety, functionality, and environmental stewardship.

National Award of Merit

Chosen by the ASDSO Board of Directors, this award honors an individual or entity contributing to dam safety on a national level.

Michele Lemieux .jpg Michele Lemieux, P.E.
Montana Dam Safety Section
Water Operations Bureau, Dam Safety Program

Michele Lemieux's contributions to ASDSO and national dam safety have been significant and commendable. Through ASDSO alone, she has served as a state representative, board member, committee chair, and volunteer. Additionally, Michele has been a leader in the industry and a frequent innovator. She was a leader in developing resources such as the Embankment Dam Reference Toolbox, a precursor to the Dam Safety Toolbox, and the Western Engineering Technical Note. She also serves on the National Dam Safety Review Board.

Michele supervises the Montana Dam Safety Program based in Helena, Montana. She has been with the Montana Dam Safety Program since 1994. She has a master’s degree in civil engineering and a bachelor’s degree in geological engineering, both from the University of Utah.

Regional Dam Safety Awards

Regional Dam Safety Awards recognize smaller projects, dam owners, and other entities that have made an impact at a local, county, state, or regional level. While efforts may not be state-of-the-art or impact the industry nationally, recipients have made exemplary community contributions. The awards recognize collaboration, community impact, innovative funding, and cost-effectiveness. They also recognize social and environmental responsibility.

The Annual Awards Committee oversees the criteria for the Regional Dam Safety Awards. ASDSO Regional Representatives review submissions and select a recipient.

Northeast

Kingston Water Department
Cooper Lake Dam Rehabilitation

The Cooper Lake Dam is an earthen embankment dam 460-ft long and 45-ft high that impounds a 3,700 acre-foot reservoir. The dam is owned by the City of Kingston Water Department (KWD) and it is the primary water supply source for Kingston, NY. KWD undertook a rehabilitation of Cooper Lake Dam to protect and preserve their water supply source through the 21st century.

Schnabel Engineering and sub-consultant CDM Smith worked with the KWD to develop a comprehensive rehabilitation design to address long-needed operational and dam safety improvements, contributing to compliance with New York state dam safety regulations and planning for future water storage needs. The project addressed spillway capacity limitations and embankment slope stability concerns and would replace and upgrade inoperable water supply and outlet works system components. The project was completed while Cooper Lake continued to serve as the city’s primary water supply source, which required close coordination and detailed sequencing during construction to balance water supply and construction risks. Construction on the project began in July 2021 and reached substantial completion in December 2023.

The rehabilitation project was the largest ever undertaken by the KWD and was completed under budget at a total design and construction cost of $18M. The project was primarily funded with low interest financing obtained through the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund (DWSRF), supplemented by a $3M Water Infrastructure Improvement Act (WIIA) grant, and a $100K FEMA High Hazard Potential Dam (HHPD) grant. This is the first project in New York to receive DWSRF funding for Dam/Reservoir Rehabilitation under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Class Exception for water supply dams. Previously, projects involving the rehabilitation of dams and reservoirs were prohibited from using DWSRF funding mechanisms. The Class Exception established criteria that must be met to make dam and reservoir projects eligible for DWSRF funding and Kingston’s successful application of this exception has opened the opportunity for water supply dam owners across New York and the nation to pursue similar funding for their dam rehabilitation projects. Because of the extraordinary nature of the funding, KWD and Schnabel staff hosted a project site tour for the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation’s board of directors and other key staff as a visual demonstration of the benefits of the project funding.

Southeast

Representative John Thomas Lamar III
District 8, Mississippi

As an active representative for his district, Rep. Trey Lamar (R) met with multiple owners of high hazard dams and heard a common theme — dam owners wanted to meet the required safety standards, but the cost of rehabilitation to bring those dams into compliance was not something they could handle without assistance. The FEMA Rehabilitation of High Hazard Potential Dam Grant Program had just been implemented, but the challenges related to eligibility requirements and the small amount of funding coming into the states were just not enough to trickle to these smaller high hazard dams.

Recognizing the challenge, Lamar brought forth House Bill HB1730 for formation of the Mississippi Dam Safety Fund. As the Mississippi House Ways and Means Chairman, Lamar championed the proposal which passed on May 28, 2020. In the first year, the bill passed through legislature with an allocation of $1,000,000. In 2021, Lamar pressed for more funding, bringing another $1,000,000 to the program, followed by $2,000,000 in 2022 and $2,000,000 in 2024.

Lamar's efforts led to the rehabilitation of 15 high hazard dams during the 2021 funding cycle and another 14 in the 2022 funding cycle, taking those 29 dams from poor or unsatisfactory condition to satisfactory and in full compliance with the Mississippi High Hazard Dam standards. The long-term impacts of this program will continue to bolster efforts to protect downstream lives and property for years to come.

Midwest

City of Pelican Rapids, Minnesota

The City of Pelican Rapids completed removal of the Pelican Rapids Dam, a high hazard dam in poor condition, in the fall of 2023. However, the decision to remove the dam was not easy.

The Pelican Rapids Dam, along with the massive statue "Pelican Pete" (known as the "world's largest pelican") has been a focal point in town for decades. The dam has been in place in some form since the 1870's. In 2016, failure of a portion of a masonry wall on the downstream side of the dam caused the City of Pelican Rapids to start the process of deciding what to do with the aging structure. The reservoir was drawn down using the old hydropower infrastructure to inspect the dam and reduce the risk due to the collapsed masonry wall, but the drawdown resulted in sinkholes developing next to the powerhouse.

In 2017, a traditional state dam safety grant requiring a 50/50 cost-share kick-started the pre-design work. Over the next two years, the city and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources held public meetings to present ecologically friendly alternatives to dam repair. During the first few public meetings, community members expressed objections to the proposition but as the community was provided information and time, they became more receptive to the idea of dam removal. In 2019, the city decided to remove the dam, and in 2020, the city of 2,600 people received a large, no cost-share grant related to the restoration and enhancement of fish habitat. The grant was sourced from a state-wide three-eighths cent sales tax used to protect, enhance, and restore Minnesota's lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater. The City of Pelican Rapids worked closely with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to develop a project meeting the goals of the grant.

The goals of the project included providing safety to downstream residents from dam failure, restoring critical habitats in the Pelican River for aquatic species, improving the biodiversity and species richness within the Pelican River, minimizing dam maintenance and other associated costs, providing more recreational opportunities to the public, and improving the overall aesthetics of the area. The completed project provides tourism, scenic views, fishing opportunities, and kayaking/canoeing capabilities to locals and the surrounding area. The project also provided fish passage that was previously obstructed by the dam.

West

US View Spillway Erosion5.jpg National Weather Service
Pocatello, Idaho

In the Spring of 2023, the National Weather Service (NWS) was instrumental in helping to provide information regarding runoff for the winter’s abnormally heavy snowpack in Southeast Idaho and Northern Utah. The NWS Pocatello Office communicated to first responders and emergency personnel the urgency of erosion that was occurring in the spillway at the Portneuf Dam (Chesterfield Reservoir) during the early morning hours of May 31, 2023. Despite the dam’s existing Emergency Action Plan containing outdated and inaccurate contact information, the NWS successfully notified individuals and organizations of the severity of the situation. Through their combined efforts, a catastrophic breach of the dam and uncontrolled release of 20,000 acre-feet of water was successfully averted.

Accepting this year’s award on behalf of the NWS Pocatello Office are Vernon Preston (Meteorologist-in-Charge) and Tim Axford (Warning Coordination Meteorologist). On that May morning, they contacted the state dam safety program, noting that continued undercutting of the dam’s concrete spillway would likely develop into a complete dam breach without an immediate response. Through their office’s communication efforts and direct onsite support with state officials and emergency managers, changes in flows into the reservoir averted a catastrophe. Thanks to the collaborative approach, officials and emergency managers could exercise their emergency action plans and make adjustments in case a future situation arises.

Danny McCook Medal

This medal was established by the Affiliate Member Advisory Committee, now known as the ASDSO Advisory Committee (AdCom), to recognize Danny McCook's lifetime achievements in geotechnical engineering and his contributions to ASDSO and the AdCom. Recipients have made outstanding contributions to research or practice in geotechnical engineering for dams. AdCom reviews nominations and selects recipients when appropriate.

Donald Bruce.jpg Dr. Donald A. Bruce
Geosystems, L.P.

Dr. Donald Bruce is a proficient, multi-disciplinary geotechnical engineer with many successful years of dam engineering experience. He is well known for his involvement in ground improvement and has spent his entire career teaching the industry what he has learned along the way.

His breadth of experience and expertise includes rock anchors, soil mixing, jet grouting, micro-piling, soil nails, post-grouting of piles, tunneling methods, permeation grouting of a diverse array of rock and soil materials, diaphragm walls, secant pile walls, and many other geotechnical solutions.

Many of the geotechnical construction technologies now utilized in the U.S. are a result of his efforts as the lead technical director for Nicholson Construction Company, whereby technologies commonly used in Europe and elsewhere were promoted and are now successfully and commonly utilized in the U.S.

He has always been willing to and continues to share his knowledge and experience through the hundreds of papers, presentations, short courses, webinars, telephone calls, and face-to-face conversations he has given to the dam safety community. He is extremely well respected in the industry and is an active member of numerous professional societies including the American Society of Civil Engineers, Deep Foundations Institute, U.S. Society of Dams, and the Association of State Dam Safety Officials.

Beyond his industry-leading technical abilities, many also consider him a professional role-model and mentor.

Young Professional of the Year

The Young Professional Award recognizes members 35 and under working in the dam safety field who have made outstanding contributions to the Association, their respective organization, or the dam safety industry. Representatives from the Young Professional Interest Group review award nominations, and the ASDSO Board of Directors approves the recipient.

Missy Setz, P.E.
Geosyntec Consultant

Missy Setz is a practicing geological engineer at Geosyntec Consultants in Kennesaw, Georgia, and is a Georgia Safe Dams Program Engineer of Record. Missy has a decade of experience and has been involved in over a dozen dam engineering projects.

She has worked to maintain public safety in the state of Georgia by supporting the design and inspection of several state-regulated dams. Missy is working with the Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources Dams Program to provide instrumentation monitoring of their dams and infrastructure, in addition to working on a dam design for the repair and stabilization to address operational and maintenance tasks. She is helping to facilitate the transition from a dam safety standards-based approach to a risk-informed programmatic approach for state and local entities.

Notably, Missy has served as the dam safety instrumentation monitor at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Boone Dam cut-off wall construction site, where she was responsible for real-time monitoring of more than 300 instruments – vibrating wire piezometers, survey monuments, slope inclinometers, and various other gauges and instruments – installed throughout the embankment and concrete dam to evaluate dam performance in response to construction and environmental loadings. Missy also worked as part of the Geosyntec team supporting the Expert Panel tasked to assess the technical causes of the rupture of Feijão Dam I in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Her role involved organizing and evaluating data and information, which were used by the Expert Panel to identify what triggered the failure of Dam I and why it occurred when it did.

Missy is an active member of ASDSO’s Committee on Career Development and Student Outreach and also serves on the Embankments, Dams, and Slopes committee of the ASCE Geo-Institute. She volunteered with the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) team in South Carolina to document dam failures due to flooding from Hurricane Joaquin. Further, Missy is the chair of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Geological Engineering Board of Visitors where she provides career counseling and presents technical lectures about her dams experience to undergraduate and graduate students to help foster the next generation of dam safety practitioners.

Bruce A. Tschantz Public Safety at Dams Award

ASDSO established this award in 2017 to recognize and celebrate Dr. Bruce Tschantz's lifetime achievements in dam safety, his contributions to ASDSO, and his efforts to improve public safety around dams. Award recipients take on the "local champion" role and work to improve public safety around dams. Often, no action would be taken without their efforts. The Public Safety Around Dams Committee reviews Award Nominations, and the ASDSO Board of Directors approves the recipient.

Hotchkiss, Rollin_0.jpg Rollin H. Hotchkiss, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE
Brigham Young University

Rollin Hotchkiss is a water resources engineering professor in the Civil and Construction Engineering Department at Brigham Young University. His current research areas include mitigating drowning at low-head dams, extending the useful life of dams and reservoirs, and the economics of sustainability.

His work over the past decade on low head dams has been groundbreaking. Most notably, he coordinated the National Inventory of Low-Head Dams Task Force and led the effort to locate more than 13,500 low head dams in the United States. The resulting inventory, referred to as an “alpha” version, is currently housed as part of the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP). This inventory will now be utilized as a resource for the Army Corps of Engineers as they develop a low head dam inventory in parallel with the National Inventory of Dams. To successfully complete the inventory, Rollin recruited his undergraduate and graduate students to participate as well as the engineering community in Utah and nationwide.

Additionally, Rollin has been an active member of ASDSO’s Public Safety Around Dams Committee, and a frequent source of information on low head dams for ASDSO members through presentations and Journal of Dam Safety articles.

Joseph J. Ellam Presidents Award

This award is named in honor of ASDSO's first president, Joe Ellam of Pennsylvania. It is given annually by the current president to an individual who has made a significant impact during their term.

John Watts
Senior Counselor, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

John Watts was selected for his outstanding leadership in pursuing dam safety legislation, including the 21st Century Dams Act and provisions of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He was also instrumental in supporting legislation that increased the number of high-risk dams eligible for FEMA’s High Hazard Potential Dam Grant Program. His efforts demonstrate his continued commitment to dam safety.