Vermont officials outline delays to dam safety technical rules, point to staffing and funding gaps

Secretary Sabrina Moore told the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee on April 3 that technical dam-safety rules tied to Act 161 are running behind schedule as staff wrestle with recent flood response and limited hiring capacity. "Act 161 was passed in 2018, and it really was intended to address gaps in what at that time, were the dam safety regulations," Moore said.

Moore said the department is balancing several priorities, including inspections after flooding in 2023 and 2024, multiple dam failures and emergency repairs, and large rehabilitation projects such as the Waterbury Reservoir job, which she estimated could cost between "$70 and $90,000,000" and could proceed to construction as soon as 2027. Moore said ANR also expects a Dam and Dike Study for Green River Reservoir to be finished later this year.

The Flood Safety Act (referred to in testimony as Act 121) added responsibilities and some positions for dam safety but did not by itself resolve capacity shortfalls. Moore said the agency identified 18 positions needed to implement the broader bill but the legislature funded only 11. "In the end, we placed 4 positions in the dam safety program or prioritized hiring for 4 of the positions in the dam safety program and that financial administrator position," she said. Of those four technical dam-safety hires, two positions have been filled.

Moore described hiring engineers for state service as difficult: "Engineering positions in state government are incredibly challenging to fill, because we just don't pay." She told the committee the program is drafting a second phase of technical standards (described as "phase 2") that will require stakeholder outreach, peer review, and formal rulemaking. She said the rule that had been expected July 1, 2025 is now more realistically projected for July 2026.

The agency also described work on a dam-safety revolving loan fund, capitalized by the legislature with about $4,000,000 to help private and public dam owners with emergency and non-emergency repairs. Moore said the department has already used the fund once this winter to respond to a project in Randolph and that the collection of operating rules for the fund is expected later; the committee was told the full operating criteria will be established by mid-2027. Moore said the slower timetable gives time to align loan criteria with the technical standards.

Committee members pressed for a clear timeline and raised concerns that without updated rules ANR lacks the full authority to compel non‑emergency repairs. Moore said ANR can continue to assist and use other state funding streams for priority projects, and emphasized the agency is trying to bring its own dam portfolio into the same compliance standards it will be asking of private owners.

Moore and committee members also discussed the transfer of regulatory authority for roughly 20 dams from the Public Utilities Commission to ANR, noting some of those dams have generation capacity and that ANR will evaluate whether any should instead be regulated by FERC. Moore asked for patience while the department prioritizes workloads in light of constrained staff resources.

Moore closed by offering to return with updates on hiring and rule progress. "We have been working actively as leadership, myself and Commissioner Bachelder, to help the program prioritize its workload, in light of the available resources," she said.