The U.S. Forest Service conducts visual inspections annually and safety inspections every five to 10 years. FERC engineers inspect structures with high and significant hazard potential annually and those classified as having low hazard potential biennially. In Canada, the only government dam safety program for regulated facilities at either the federal or provincial level is administered by the province of British Columbia. Information provided to the Commission indicates that emergency action plans do not exist for all regulated facilities. Fortunately, there are plans for most high-hazard dams.
Considerable variation exists among the plans.
Even though failures could in some instances put cities and major highways at risk, the Commission has observed that emergency preparedness training is not always taken seriously by participants, and governments at all levels are not always fully involved. In some cases, such as in the Rainy Lake basin and St. Croix River, there are dams in series. In these situations, the failure of one dam might affect others downstream. The Commission attaches great importance to public safety and would welcome any views which the governments or others may have about how best to insure that regulated facilities are maintained and operated safely. Susan Bayh is a Commissioner in the International Joint Commission's U.S. Section and Francis Murphy is a Commissioner in the Canadian Section.