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Senate panel advances changes to dam-safety pilot after stakeholders urge flexible municipal plans
Summary
Lawmakers reviewed H.778, a two-dam emergency operations planning pilot, and agreed to language changes to let the state craft flexible, maintainable EOPs for downstream communities rather than require separate, formal municipal plans for every town. The division asked the committee to use FEMA's "whole community" approach and to focus limited funds on templates and coordination.
The Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee on Thursday reviewed H.778, a bill that would fund a two-dam pilot project to develop emergency operations plans for communities downstream of high-hazard dams. Committee members and agency officials focused debate on how the plans should be written and who should be responsible for maintaining them.
Committee staff explained the pilot would cover two state dams classified as high-hazard: one with a population at risk of 1,000 or more people and a second with fewer than 1,000 but at least 100 people. The bill instructs the Division of Emergency Management, in coordination with the Department of Environmental Conservation, to develop a set of emergency operations plans…
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