Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Dam Safety topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
State engineers warn aging dams and downstream development raise public-safety risk and repair costs
Summary
Kansas dam-safety staff told the task force that many regulatory dams are aging, inspection costs fall to owners, and development downstream has increased hazard classifications — raising inspection and rehabilitation costs that many owners cannot meet.
Earl Lewis, chief engineer for dams and water structures, told the Water Program Task Force that Kansas dam safety is primarily a public-safety program focused on reducing risk to life and property from dam incidents during flood events.
Lewis said there are nearly 6,500 dams on the National Inventory of Dams and that roughly 2,600 are regulated under Kansas statute; about 500 are classified significant or high hazard. He explained the program’s inspection cadence — high-hazard dams every three years, significant-hazard dams every five years — and noted inspections typically cost $5,000–$7,000 and are the dam owner’s responsibility. "As dams age, just like everything else...then the potential hazard grows as well," Lewis said.
Why it matters: Lewis emphasized that development downstream of dams increases the potential consequences of failure. He showed examples from 2019 flood events and more recent inspections where outlet-pipe erosion and other failures threatened downstream wastewater treatment plants, roads and homes. Lewis said bringing a noncompliant dam back to standards can be costly — “on the order of $200,000–$400,000, depending on the dam.”
Enforcement and funding: Lewis described the inspection-and-order process and noted limitations in enforcement tools. The state issues inspection orders and can require dam modification or breach; however, the program lacks an administrative civil-penalty mechanism comparable to water-right enforcement to force maintenance in some cases. Lewis and members discussed cost-sharing for repairs and whether the state should provide more financial assistance for high-hazard structures owned by private entities.
Ending: The chief engineer urged the task force to identify funding and communication strategies to ensure dam owners and downstream communities receive breach-inundation information and to help fund necessary rehabilitation, especially as development increases the population and infrastructure at risk downstream.
