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Freedom of Information

Corps Pulls Dam Inventory from Web

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pulled its National Inventory of Dams from the World Wide Web the week of Oct. 8, adding to a growing blackout of information about environmental hazards in response to terrorist attacks.

The Inventory, a database of about 80,000 U.S. dams, identifies their physical characteristics, owners, and responsible government agencies, but does not include any information about how safe they are. Until this month, the data could be queried online, downloaded in its entirety, or ordered in CD form.

Bob Banks, manager of the Inventory, said the Corps had taken latitude and longitude information on the dams off the web within a few days after September 11. Such information would be useful to an airplane pilot looking for a particular dam.

Banks said the Web shutdown was intended to be a temporary measure while the Corps evaluated the safest way to present the information in light of ongoing terrorist threats. Banks said reporters who wanted to use the inventory could make individual requests, and did not need to file a Freedom of Information Act request.

National Inventory of Dams data is also available to reporters through the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR), according to Brant Houston, director of Investigative Reporters and Editors, NICAR’s parent organization. Houston said NICAR planned to continue making the data available to reporters despite the Corps Web blackout.

Reporters or others could use the Inventory primarily as a way of identifying and locating all the dams in a particular state or region. If they wanted to determine how safe those dams were, they would have to seek that information elsewhere.

The origins of the National Dam Safety Program can be traced back to at least 1972, when failure of a privately owned tailings dam in Buffalo Creek West Virginia killed 125 people and Congress passed the National Dam Inspection Act.

Under the Dam Safety Program, all federally owned, operated, or regulated dams are required to have and Emeregency Action Plan. Such a plan would map out the downstream areas that would be swept by flash floods in the event of dam failure, and spell out responsibilities for notifying and evacuating people at risk.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), many state-regulated dams lack Emergency Action Plans.

Reprinted with permission. Published in Environment Writer newsletter October 2001, by the National Safety Council's Environmental Health Center.