Alabama dam safety bill awaits signature from Ivey
Senate Bill 284, which establishes a Dam Safety Program for the State of Alabama is currently awaiting a signature from Gov. Kay Ivey after receiving approval from the House and the Senate Thursday morning.
If the bill is signed mandatory inspections will be required every two years for state owned dams. These inspections must be completed by a civil engineer who will then “submit an accompanying report to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management [ADEM]” per the bill’s text.
As part of these regular inspections the engineer must also assign each dam a hazard designation which can include rankings of low, significant, or high hazard, depending on the extent of damage that would be caused by a dam’s failure according to the Association of State Dam Safety.
ADEM will now serve as a “public repository” for all dam safety related documents, the bill says.
All state-owned dams and reservoirs greater than six feet in height or with a maximum water storage elevation of greater than 15-acre feet are beholden to this new law, but privately owned dams and reservoirs will be exempt unless the owners choose to elect in.