Michigan’s Innovative Approach to Risk Prioritization and Screening-Level Risk Assessments

Sanford Dams on May 19, 2020, Governor Gretchen Whitmer directed the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) to perform a thorough review of Michigan’s Dam Safety Program. This led to the establishment of the Michigan Dam Safety Task Force (MDSTF), which, in February 2022, published a report with 86 recommendations to strengthen the state’s approach to dam safety. One critical recommendation was the development of a state-wide risk prioritization of Michigan’s portfolio of dams, with the goal of supporting data-driven decisions for resource allocation, regulatory compliance, and dam safety enforcement.

To address the recommendation, EGLE’s Dam Safety Unit (DSU) retained GEI Consultants, Inc. (GEI) to conduct an independent screening level risk prioritization for a portfolio of 219 high and significant hazard dams under state regulation. Each dam’s risk to public safety was evaluated individually considering the likelihood and consequences of various types of hypothetical dam failures. The purpose of this work was to provide EGLE’s DSU with a risk prioritization of the dam portfolio to inform programmatic decisions consistent with the MDSTF recommendation. (Continued)