03/26/08 Ecology wants unpermitted dams brought into compliance

Washington Ag March 26, 2008 The Department of Ecology is conducting a statewide inventory of dams on small reservoirs that may not comply with state safety regulations. Doug Johnson, state dam safety supervisor, says the dams or frost ponds, are often used by fruit growers for frost control and to store irrigation water. Johnson: "We have had some failures of some dams we didn't know about or regulate. We've also been seeing a lot of them being built without permits. So what we wanted to do is do an inventory of these facilities. Before we did that we wanted to give dam owners a chance to come in voluntarily and work with us to make their ponds legal." Owners who voluntarily come forward before Sept. 1, 2008, and cooperate with Ecology to obtain permits for their dams will not be penalized. There is aerial photography available for the entire state which makes it easy to locate and identify unpermitted dams. Ecology has authority over water reservoirs capable of storing 10 acre-feet or more above ground level. That's about equivalent to a football field, eight feet deep. I'm Bob Hoff.