State engineer briefs committee on modest updates to Nevada dam safety law

Assembly Bill 26 would update Nevada's dam safety statutes, the Division of Water Resources told the Senate Committee on Natural Resources during a hearing in Carson City.

Adam Sullivan, state engineer and administrator of the Division of Water Resources, told the committee the bill "proposes updates to the division's dam safety statutes" and is intended to "strengthen regulatory clarity and to be consistent with the current industry standards and the recommendations from the National Dam Safety Program." He said the assembly made a minor amendment that narrowed a liability exemption to apply only to division staff.

The bill's sponsor and the division framed AB 26 as technical modernization rather than a new regulatory program. Sullivan said Nevada was one of the first Western states to adopt dam safety law in 1951 and that the update mostly replaces outdated language. "There was a minor amendment on the assembly side which removed the term authorized agent from the liability exemption in section 1 of this bill. So this exemption is narrowed to just apply to division staff," he said.

Sullivan described the existing dam-safety program: the division regulates roughly 658 jurisdictional dams categorized as high, significant and low hazard. He said 54 are classified high hazard (failure could result in loss of life), 88 significant (failure could cause extensive economic or infrastructure damage) and about 416 low-hazard dams. The division's dam safety section employs five staff who conduct between 200 and 300 visual inspections annually and review about 15 to 20 reconstruction or alteration applications each year.

Sullivan said the division oversees emergency action plans for dam owners and that owners remain responsible for maintenance and operation. He noted one exception: the division is both regulator and owner for the South Fork Dam near Spring Creek in Elko County and that the division contracts independent third-party inspections for that site.

Funding of the program also was discussed. Sullivan said most program activities other than staff salaries are covered by an annual FEMA State Assistance grant. He said storage fees paid by owners statewide total roughly $1,400,000 and currently flow into the state's general fund; the division has discussed the possibility of retaining those fees to support dam-safety work but said that is not part of AB 26.

Senators asked about legal exposure and enforcement. Sullivan said there are no current lawsuits against dam-safety staff for failures and that protections exist in "NRS chapter 41" for certain dam-safety actions. Senators also asked about tribal, federal and Bureau of Reclamation dams; division staff (Keith Conrad, dam-safety supervisor) said the bill clarifies exemptions for Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers structures and that Bureau of Indian Affairs–administered structures are regulated by the BIA's own dam-safety program.

The committee took no public or neutral testimony in Carson City or by phone, and the presenter offered no closing amendments; the chair closed the hearing. No committee vote occurred at the hearing.

The bill will return to committee for further action at a later date if scheduled by the committee.