Colorado Dam Safety Branch - Spillway Evaluation Computer Model

Abstract Only - The Colorado State Engineer, by state statute, is required to establish safe water storage level for approximately 2,500 jurisdic­tional size dams located within Colorado. To accomplish this, the State Engineer maintains a staff of 11 engineers in the Dam Safety Branch.
The primary function of the Dam Safety Branch is to provide technical guidance to the State Engineer in determining estimated safer storage levels. Each of the 11 field engineers, on an annual basis,
performs on-site dam safety inspections on approximately 100 dams. Of the total number of inspections, about half are for _high or
moderate hazard classified dams, and the balance are for low hazard structures. The high and moderate hazard dams are inspected once each year, while the low hazard dams are field evaluated once every five years. CONT.