Beefing up security at America's dams and reservoirs

[Nomen Nescio]

National Public Radio (NPR) Morning Edition  (11:00 AM AM ET)
Thursday, Oct. 18, 2001

Beefing up security at America's dams and reservoirs

BOB EDWARDS, host: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Bob
Edwards.

Security is tight at many of the nation's 70,000 reservoirs and dams.
There's concern about water contamination from chemical or biological
agents, and about possible attempts to breach the dams. NPR's Howard
Berkes reports. HOWARD BERKES reporting:

All across the country now, guards are on patrol and checkpoints are
in place in an attempt to keep terrorists away from dams. Hoover Dam,
near Las Vegas, has a major regional highway straddling its crest, but
roadblocks as far as 20 miles away hold trucks, buses and big RVs
back. And floating patrols behind and below the dam keep boats away.
Bob Walsh is spokesman for the US Bureau of Reclamation, which manages
Hoover Dam.

Mr. BOB WALSH (US Bureau of Reclamation): You don't want large
vehicles carrying explosives,!
 for example, to be allowed across the
dam. Gasoline tankers, for example, are prohibited from crossing the
dam at this point as well; any type of a hazardous material.

BERKES: The September 11th attacks prompted similar security at some
of the bureau's 500 other dams in 17 Western states. John Keyes is the
commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation.

Commissioner JOHN KEYES (US Bureau of Reclamation): There is no
specific threat against any of our specific facilities, let me put it
that way. But potential for terrorist activity is being provided for.
We are at a high level of security at all of our critical facilities,
both to protect against damage to the facilities themselves and to the
water supplies.

BERKES: The risk at these facilities is enormous. And it's not just
from flooding downstream if a dam is breached or fails. Sixty-one
million people depend on the structures for water, including farmers
producing 60 percent of the nation's vegetables. Bureau dams generate
!
enough power for six million homes. They're a tempting target for
terrorists, says Tim Brown, a senior analyst at globalsecurity.org.

Mr. TIM BROWN (Senior Analyst, Globalsecurity.org): The entire economy
in the Southwest is dependent upon the electricity and the irrigation
that the dams afford. And the loss of any or all of the dams along the
Colorado River Basin would cripple the economy of the Southwest for
years to come, and could have potentially significant effects on the
US economy in the long run.

BERKES: That's also true for other regions and hundreds of communities
in all parts of the country with critical links to the nation's 70,000
dams. Most were built long before terrorism was considered a strong
domestic threat, notes Bill Bingham, a dam designer and engineer.
Bingham is also president of the US Society on Dams, a national group
focusing on engineering and safety.

Mr. BILL BINGHAM (US Society of Dams): Our dams in the past have not
been designed for severe!
 blast incidents like we would see with a
truckload of explosives across the top a dam, or an aircraft loaded
with fuel crashing into the downstream face of the dam. I don't think
that design criteria encompasses those kinds of issues.

BERKES: So it's unclear, Bingham says, whether dams can be breached by
such attacks. He's calling for a national risk assessment to determine
dam vulnerabilities and ways to protect them.

Mr. BINGHAM: Making sure that you've got the properties as secure as
you can make them; limiting access, and doing regular patrols and
those types of things. And having a current emergency action plan in
the event that there would be some kind of an attack on one of these
facilities.

BERKES: John Keyes of the US Bureau of Reclamations says he's already
accessing the risk at bureau dams, while also bolstering security.

Mr. KEYES: Terrorism is nothing new to the security for our
facilities. We've deal with Earth Liberation Front and the
ecoterrorism folks f!
or several years. We have prepared for
contingencies involving contamination of reservoir water. We have
emergency preparedness plans for all of our facilities that deal with
inundation downstream. We have a comprehensive dam safety program, as
well as a general security program for protection of those vital
infrastructures.

Keyes acknowledges one problem. The bureau has only one armed security
force at Hoover Dam. The rest of its dams depend on unarmed guards and
voluntary help from state and local police who have limited authority
on federal property. Congress is considering legislation to address
that. Bill Bingham of the US Society of Dams, worries more about
state, local and private structures.

Mr. BINGHAM: There are many privately owned or even publicly
owned--non-federal publicly owned dams that do not have emergency
action plans, or security plans.

BERKES: Bingham says some dam owners don't have the money or staff for
more security, and he says states have inconsi!
stent requirements for
emergency action plans. Still, state, local and private dam managers
say they're bolstering their security with state and local police.
Howard Berkes, NPR News.