Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement's Safety of Dams: Emergency Preparedness

This report details the results of our evaluation ofthe Bureau of Land Management's (BLM), National Park Service's (NPS), and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement's (OSM) emergency preparedness at their high hazard dams.

High hazard dams under the purview of BLM, NPS, and OSM either have no requirement for emergency action plans (EAP) or have EAPs that have been inadequately exercised or reviewed or that have not been formalized. In addition, we found an absence of a uniform approach to monitoring high hazard dams not owned by BLM or NPS but located on BLM and NPS lands. We include 11 recommendations in our report that, if implemented, will help to improve emergency action planning at the three bureaus.