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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 (EOPs) and report results to the General Assembly.
Stakeholders urged changes to avoid requiring a separate, fully maintainable EOP for each small municipality. "It may be that there might be one repetitive EOP or including all because there's overlap in emergency services," said Eric Horn, who identified himself as a director of Marisman; he warned that small towns may lack capacity to keep independent plans updated and suggested a regional or template-based approach. Committee members signaled support for editing statutory language so each EOP can include actions for multiple municipalities rather than mandating discrete town-specific plans.
Staff also recommended replacing extensive statutory lists of interested parties with FEMA's "whole community" definition so the division can collect input from residents, emergency management practitioners, community leaders and government officials without frequent statutory updates. Some senators asked for an explicit link to FEMA’s definition to avoid ambiguity.
The bill's required EOP elements include use of dam emergency action plans and inundation maps, identification of planned evacuations and evacuation sites, special consideration of vulnerable populations and provisions for mutual aid and early-warning communications. Committee members debated whether explicitly naming "vulnerable populations" in statute should remain, and a compromise was proposed to refer to "vulnerable populations within the whole community."
Sponsors confirmed the bill carries an appropriation: $250,000 for the division to complete the pilot project and $125,000 for DEC’s role. The committee asked staff to circulate revised draft language reflecting the changes discussed and signaled interest in returning to the bill for a final vote once edits are prepared.
The committee closed the item and moved on to other business; no formal vote on the bill occurred during the hearing.
What’s next: The division will prepare revised statutory language and materials reflecting agreement on flexible EOP structure and the FEMA "whole community" approach; the committee expects a revised draft to be circulated for review before scheduling a vote.
