Emergency Action Planning and Response

Each owner of a high and significant hazard potential dam is required to prepare, maintain, and exercise a written emergency action plan (EAP) for immediate defensive action to prevent failure of the dam and to minimize any threat to downstream development.

The EAP defines the dam owner’s requirements to observe his dam for emergency conditions, the responsibilities for notifying a pre-determined list of Emergency Responders, and a description of the downstream areas potentially affected.

The EAP is required to contain the following items:

• Notification Chart
• Reservoir & Dam Description
• Delineation of Unsafe Conditions, Procedures, & Triggering Events
• Delineation of Responsibilities
• Discussion of Emergency Supplies/Equipment
• Flood Inundation Map

The Department is serious in its commitment to ensure that all significant and high hazard dams in the state of Arizona have effective EAPs for protection of the public against loss of life and property.  Lack of an adequate EAP is considered to be a Safety Deficiency.

To minimize the time and expense required by dam owners, we have developed a fill-in-the-blank EAP Form . The Dam Safety staff can assist the owner in completing this form.  However, the services of a professional engineer may be required to satisfactorily develop an inundation map for final EAP completion.

The owner is required to review and update the emergency action plan annually or more frequently to incorporate changes such as new personnel, changing roles of emergency agencies, emergency response resources, conditions of the dam, and information learned from mock exercises.