As the nation's largest wholesaler of water, the Bureau of Reclamation operates and maintains approximately 350 high or significant hazard dams throughout the 17 western states. As part of its responsibility, Reclamation must ensure that these dams do not pose an unreasonable risk to the downstream public, property, and the environment. Following the failure of Teton Dam in 1976, Congress enacted the Reclamation Safety of Dams Act to authorize corrective actions to reduce risk. Reclamation's challenge is to identify potential risks at its dams, evaluate those risks, and to take action to reduce risk where it is determined to be unacceptable. Over the past decade, Reclamation has integrated risk assessment with traditional engineering tools to focus its risk reduction efforts on those efforts that provide the most significant risk reduction benefits to the public. While many lessons have been learned in the integration of this process, there still opportunities for growth in terms of knowledge, training, and coordination with others.
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