Security lacking at dams in West

Study: Structures struggling to meet challenges

By Jerd Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 19, 2008 at 11:03 a.m.
Updated August 19, 2008 at 11:54 p.m.

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Federal dams across the West are struggling to meet security challenges in the post- 9/11 world, according to a newly released analysis by the National Academies of Science.

The academies' National Research Council gave the dams' operator, the Bureau of Reclamation, a grade of B-minus or C, the chair of a study committee said in an interview this week.

The bureau is hamstrung by internal communication problems and tight budgets, according to the analysis.

The bureau operates more than 479 dams in 17 Western states, including 37 in Colorado.

Among its high-profile facilities are Hoover Dam, outside Las Vegas, and Glen Canyon Dam, on Lake Powell.

If an attack occurred at either of these facilities, and several others, massive floods could rip through cities such as Sacramento, Calif., and interrupt water deliveries to cities such as Las Vegas. In addition, because most of these dams generate vast amounts of electricity, an attack could trigger widespread, regional blackouts.

"The bureau has done a good job under difficult circumstances," said John Christian, a consulting engineer who led the study, which was done at the request of the BOR.

The analysis credits the bureau with establishing security offices at each of its major facilities.

Hoover Dam has its own police force.

The bureau is also credited with completing a detailed risk analysis on each of its dams, with spending millions to hire additional guards and with conducting some training.

"The public's concern should be fairly low on security alone," Christian said, in part because such events are rare. Still, he said he would give the giant agency only a B-Minus or C for its current level of readiness for a terrorist attack.

"They're doing a reasonably good job with the resources they have," Christian said. "And I don't think they're complacent."

But the analysis, conducted in 2007, showed major gaps in communications between security offices and the Denver headquarters office. It also revealed clashes between newly created security offices and the long-standing crews that operate the dams. Such clashes could make it difficult to defend against an attack and to respond once one occurs.

In addition, the National Academies team said the bureau has failed to streamline identity checks for contractors, a process that now takes as long as six to eight months.

It has also failed to establish a policy on the use of deadly force and hasn't conducted much- needed real-life training exercises based on various disaster scenarios.

David Achterberg, the bureau's director for security, safety and law enforcement in Denver, said his agency is moving forward to incorporate the report's recommendations.

"Since 9/11 we've spent $84 million to enhance security. This year our security budget alone is $50 million, and half of that is for guards. But when we brought the (academies') National Research Council in, we showed them what we were doing on dam safety and acknowledged that we weren't as developed as we wanted to be on dam security."

Regardless, Achterberg said, "even though it's not as mature a program as dam safety, the safety and security of these facilities is Reclamation's No. 1 priority."

smithj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5474

• August 19, 2008

  12:14 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  FlyfishDude52 writes:

  This would be easier if it weren't pc to use profiling. After all, when was the last time you heard or saw a blond-haired, blue-eyed guy blow himself up as a suicide bomber??

• August 19, 2008

  12:39 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  El_Mariachi writes:

  Among its high-profile facilities is Hoover Dam, outside Las Vegas, and Glen Canyon Dam, on Lake Powell.

  If an attack occurred at either of these facilities, and several others, massive floods could rip through cities such as Sacramento and interrupt water deliveries to cities such as Las Vegas.

  WOW!...The water would go ll the way to Sacramento?...That would be a flood of Biblical Proportions considering the Colorado River flows to the south!!!

  C'mon Jerd!!!

• August 19, 2008

  1:28 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  FlyfishDude52 writes:

  A flood that would cross the Sierra Nevada range? Biblical proportions, indeed!

• August 19, 2008

  1:32 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  HopiMedicineMan writes:

  No mention here of the Supai flood Sunday. If we're talking about flooding, we may as well talk about a flood. Someone at this newspaper needs to seriously coordinate coverage.

  At this moment, 11 are missing. Supai is destroyed. The Havasupai tribe is devastated, as it was 11 years ago from a similar flood. The casino is suddenly on the market.

• August 20, 2008

  9:34 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  SlouchingTowardBoulder writes:

  I thought the same thing about Sacramento being flooded from the Colorado. Methinks someone is geographically challenged.

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