Dam Owner Responsibility for Upgrade with Downstream Development (Hazard Creep)

State responses to the following question: Kentucky’s dam safety laws currently hold the dam owner responsible for bringing his structure into compliance with the state’s requirements for the appropriate hazard classification. In the event that development occurs downstream in an area that appears to be in the inundation area the owner must upgrade the dam to meet appropriate criteria or prove by breach analysis that the downstream development won’t be affected by the inundation or drain the lake and breach the structure. There is currently a push from management here to shift the responsibility to the downstream property owner and to regulate the inundation area downstream from a dam much the same as floodplains are regulated and to prohibit residential construction in inundation areas. Do any of your programs operate on the assumption that the downstream property owner is responsible for upgrading the dam or is construction below the dam prohibited by the state dam safety laws?

The ASDSO surveys archive is available to members through the members only section of DamSafety.org