Dam safety; Soil and Water Conservation Board to establish incremental damage analysis procedure. (HB438)
Introduced By
Del. David Toscano (D-Charlottesville) with support from co-patrons Del. Mark Cole (R-Fredericksburg), and Del. Brenda Pogge (R-Williamsburg)
Progress
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Introduced |
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Passed Committee |
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Passed House |
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Passed Senate |
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Signed by Governor |
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Became Law |
Description
Dam safety. Requires the Soil and Water Conservation Board to establish an alternate procedure that provides for a new standard for the spillway design requirement. This new spillway standard would apply to those dams in existence prior to July 1, 1982. The bill also allows an owner of a dam who has received a report from the Board containing recommendations for the correction of deficiencies in the dam to submit his own plan for such corrections. One of the two criteria for designating a dam as unsafe is changed. Currently, if there are serious deficiencies in the design or construction of the dam that, if left unaddressed, could result in a failure that may result in loss of life or damage to downstream property, the dam is cited as being unsafe. The new criterion would be that such deficiencies may result in "significant" damage to downstream property. The bill requires the Board to adopt regulations that consider the impact of downstream limited-use or private roadways with low traffic volume and low public safety risk in the determination of the hazard potential classification of an impounding structure. View Full Text »
Comments
Please, pass HB438.
We need to adopt regulations that consider the impact of downstream traffic and public safety for spillways of dams prior to Ju;y 1. 1982.
Thank you for keeping us safe, downstream from our older dams.
Cindy Patterson
This legislation would have a positive impact on many thousands of Virginians -- private dam owners and municipalities with dams -- who cannot possibly afford the huge and unnecessary expense associated with upgrading old but still safe dams to standards now applied to new dams. The legislation would give DCR more flexibility in assessing the need for these upgrades.
Private roads with little traffic that are on or downstream of a dam need to be treated differently than major public roads. This bill will let DCR adopt safety guidelines that are more appropriate to the wide range of situations that exist across the state.