ASDSO and USSD Partner to Recommend Oroville Spillway Failure Forensic Investigation Team

“In an unprecedented action to facilitate the timely completion of an independent failure investigation report for California’s Oroville Dam spillway system, ASDSO and the U.S. Society on Dams (USSD) have been called upon to appoint an independent failure investigation team.”

Read More

Best State Dam Safety Program Practices

The situation at Oroville Dam has continued to gain a lot of media attention and public interest. Across the United States, people are questioning their own state’s dam safety program and reaching out for information on the condition of dams. Now is an important time to consider conducting community outreach and bringing attention to your state’s infrastructure needs.

Below is a great example of an innovation in outreach by a state program. John Moyle, Division Director for NJ DEP's Division of Dam Safety and Flood Control, appeared on a joint podcast between the state's Department of Environmental Protection and the Preparedness Bureau. He carefully explained the situation at Oroville Dam and followed his explanation with information on New Jersey’s dam program. The podcast also opened the door to spreading the word about Governor Christie's press statement regarding new funding for New Jersey's dam rehabilitation loan program. ASDSO would like to say good job to John and recommend that other state programs use this podcast as an example of excellent community outreach and state program practices.

John Moyle Podcast

New Jersey Funding Article

The Board of Directors has approved the 2017-2021 Strategic Plan. A snapshot of ASDSO's mission, goals and objectives has been created to give an overview of our focus for the next 5 years.

Read More

National Dam Safety Awareness Day, NDSAD, was created to encourage and promote individual and community responsibility and best practices for dam safety, and illustrate what steps people can take to either prevent future catastrophic dam failures or lessen the impact if a failure was to occur.

Dam safety is still as important now as it was in 1889 when more than 2,200 lives were lost in the failure of the South Fork Dam in Johnstown, the event leading to the creation of NDSAD. Today, low-head dams pose a threat to community members who are not educated on safe practices around the site. NDSAD is an excellent opportunity to proactively educate the public and reach out to the media.

We recommend Over, Under, Gone – The Killer in Our Rivers for public showings along with its hashtag #DamDangerous.

ASDSO has been tracking and posting news articles concerning safety around dams. Articles from 2017 are posted here. One article, Markle Mill among state's low-head 'Dam Dangerous' sites, does a great job of explaining how low-head dams impact their communities and the community's role in improving the safety.

ASDSO will be using #DamDay on its social media posts. Make sure you use the hashtag on your own NDSAD posts so we can see them and retweet! 

Oroville Updates

• California releases reports on Oroville dam after criticism - Click Here
• State kept these Oroville Dam documents secret at first. Now they’ve partially released two of them - Click Here

State and Local News

• 2017 New Hampshire Infrastructure Report Card - Click Here
• Tait Station Low Dam Removal: Project to improve Great Miami River access and safety - Click Here
• New York state has 7,000 dams: See which are near you and what shape they're in - Mark Ogden Quoted - Click Here
• Oregon lawmakers push for increased dam safety - Click Here
• New Fayetteville policy to aid dam repairs - Click Here

Dam History

• Secret Nazi aerial photos showing the devastation delivered by Britain's famous WWII Dam Busters are set to fetch £1,200 at auction - Click Here

The ongoing update of the DamFailures.Org website continues thanks to the cooperative technical partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Dam Safety Program. And kudos go to a subcommittee of the Dam Failures and Incidents Committee, which has created the update plan.
With support from the partnership grant, ASDSO research teams are beginning work on four new case studies and four new lessons learned that will be added to the site later this year.

Visit DamFailures.org and learn more about how the dam safety community can better understand historic dam failures and their lessons learned.

This month marked the 40th anniversary of President Carter's Dam Safety Memorandum to the Heads of Certain Federal Agencies.

Martin McCann, the Director of the National Performance of Dams Program at Stanford University, prepared the following piece while researching the history of the memorandum.

Click here to read his piece

Click here to read the memorandum 

ASDSO is excited to announce that we are in the process of creating a new dam safety website! Like the old site, the new site will be a great resource for engineers, owners, officials and the public. However, the new site will now be easier to navigate, quicker, more user-friendly and optimized for both mobile and desktop viewing. Be on the lookout for more updates over the next weeks and months.  

Our Sympathies to the Family of Patrick Diederich 

Pat Diederich, a former ASDSO board member, passed away this month. His passing happened unexpectedly a few days before his 53rd birthday.  Pat was dedicated to the dam safety community and served a vital role in improving dams in his home state of Nebraska, where he served as the Chief of the Dam Safety Program. Pat's influence and kindness will be remembered by his friends in the dam safety community. 

State Representative Transition in Washington

Joe Witczak will begin as the new Dam Safety/Wells Manager and ASDSO state representative for the Washington State Department of Ecology. Welcome to Joe! You can contact him at [email protected].

Mark Killgore Joins VA Department of Conservation and Recreation 

Mark Killgore has been named the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Regional Dam Safety Engineer for Region 2. Killgore has more than 30 years of experience in the hydroelectric and dams sectors. 

Previously, Killgore was the director of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ strategic initiative on education and professional licensure. 

The 2017 National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) Security and Resilience Challenge, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program, will be open for submissions from April 17, 2017 through May 12, 2017. The NIPP Challenge will identify and fund approximately six to twelve high priority innovative projects among the critical infrastructure community. Click here for more information.

Gannett Fleming is hosting the Public Safety & Security for Dams Workshop on July 25-27 in Harrisburg, PA. Click here for more information.

Don't forget about the ASDSO Career Center! With jobs ranging from internships for students and entry level positions for recent graduates to senior level positions and all levels in between the ASDSO Career Center is the perfect place to find your next opportunity. Jobs are added throughout the month so make sure to check back throughout the month! In addition to searching for the perfect opportunity, students can post resumes and employers can use the career center to announce their openings to the ASDSO community. Just another of the many benefits of being a ASDSO member!

Do you know someone making an impact on the profession? Do you know of a project that advances the state-of-the-art in the field of dam safety? If so, now is the time to nominate them for a 2017 ASDSO Award!

The 2017 call for nominations period is open for the following awards – National Dam Rehabilitation Project, Regional Awards of Merit, Terry L. Hampton Medal, and the Danny McCook Medal of the Year.

Nominations and all supporting documents are due by June 2, 2017. Winners will be announced in late July and are invited as honored guests to attend Dam Safety 2017, September 10-14, 2017 in San Antonio, TX.

Click here for the Awards Flyer !