From Reacting to Preparing: The History of Emergency Action Plans for Dams

Early actions as a dam incident develops are critical to reducing and preventing life, economic, and environmental loss. Being prepared to act in an emergency improves the outcome of the response. According to State Performance Data compiled by ASDSO, as of 2019, 82% of high hazard dams have an Emergency Action Plan (EAP). The primary purpose of an EAP is to identify potential emergency conditions at a dam, document areas that can be affected by the loss of the dam, and specify preplanned actions to be followed to reduce loss of life and damage to property or the environment.

Today, the FEMA National Dam Safety Program encourages the implementation of effective EAPs for high and significant haz-ard dams in the United States, which was not always the case. It has only been in the last 20 to 30 years that EAPs have become a standard risk reduction tool for dam owners, regulators, and emergency responders. During this time, the purpose, contents, and maintenance needs for EAPs have advanced and become more comprehensive and uniform. Owners with large portfolios of dams and key regulatory agencies have developed guidelines for these important documents. Lessons learned from other in-dustries such as emergency management (as well as those from the Dams sector) that rely on emergency action plans have been applied to the content of today’s EAPs.

This paper provides a historical perspective and follows the evo-lution of EAPs for dams from their origins to the current state of the practice. It will also identify trends and discuss the future of emergency action planning.