Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 3080, Water Resources Development Act of 2013

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of Congressman MALONEY's Motion to Instruct Conferees to recede to the Senate on the Dam Safety Provision of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act. Dams are an integral part of our nation's economy and provide water for agricultural and drinking purposes, flood control, navigation, and hydropower. Unfortunately, of the 87,000 dams listed on the 2013 National Inventory of Dams (NID), over 14,000 are deemed ``high hazard.'' This means that failure of these dams would result in the loss of life and serious damage to homes, businesses, and infrastructure. In the state of Wisconsin, there are 252 high hazard dams. Furthermore, only 60 percent of the nation's high hazard dams have Emergency Action Plans, and over 20,000 dams nationwide were constructed prior to 1960. Aging dams add not only to construction costs but also increase the risk of failure. In fact, the American Society of Civil Engineers recently gave the nation's dam infrastructure an unacceptable ``D'' grade in their annual report.

Though states are responsible for regulating about 80 percent of the nation's dams, most states are understaffed and underfunded. The Model State Dam Safety Program has determined that 10 state regulators are necessary per 25 dams in order to carry out the regulatory mandates set in most state dam safety laws. However, in 2012, the Association of State Dam Safety Officials reported that due to lack of funding, most states only have 8 dam inspectors; this means that on average, each dam inspector is responsible for overseeing the safety of about 208 existing dams, or more than seven times the amount recommended. Wisconsin's dam safety program has 6.25 employees that oversee an average of 152 state regulated dams, or more than five times the amount recommended by the Model State Dam Safety Program.

For the first time, this Senate provision would provide for public awareness outreach funding, an essential step to ensure that all citizens understand the need to prepare for, mitigate for, respond to, and recover from dam incidents and failures. Investment in infrastructure is critical to the long-term economic health of our nation, and that is why I support Congressman MALONEY's efforts to authorize funding for the Dam Safety Provision of WRRDA.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source