Citing security, Nevada keeps dams’ emergency plans secret

RENO, Nev. — Nevada keeps emergency response plans for potential dam failures secret for the same reason the U.S. government refuses the state’s demands for information about weapons-grade plutonium shipped to the Las Vegas area: It’s confidential for security purposes, even for dams at golf course ponds.

A two-year investigation by The Associated Press identified at least 1,680 dams nationwide rated high-hazard because of the potential for loss of life if they failed and are considered to be in poor or unsatisfactory condition.

For the 14 such dams in Nevada, the publicly available data suggest none poses an imminent threat or has a safety concern that is not already being addressed. Most are smaller, earthen irrigation dams or retention ponds. Some are empty, two have been decommissioned and three others are headed that way.

But unlike many other states, Nevada will not release the Emergency Action Plans that dam owners must update annually, so details of potential damage downstream from catastrophic failures are unknown.

Kristen Geddes, the state Division of Water Resources’ hearing section chief, said the reports are confidential because they include information “prepared and maintained for the purpose or preventing or responding to an act of terrorism.”

Idaho is the only other state west of the Rockies that refused to disclose any Emergency Action Plans for the same or similar reasons. Fewer than a dozen states do the same.

Critics of keeping plans secret include Craig Fugate, former administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who also served as director of Florida’s emergency management division.

“The public has the right to know they live downstream from a vulnerable dam. They have the right to know that they need to be prepared and how they get the warning if there is going to be any,” said Fugate, now chief emergency management officer at One Concern, a company that helps cities and counties create disaster response plans.

Scott Sonner The Associated Press Federal officials walk across the Derby Dam in Wadsworth, located about 20 miles east of Reno, as Truckee River water flows beneath it on Sept. 11.