Moving towards risk-based reservoir safety management – experience from the United States of America

Reservoir safety in the United Kingdom is undergoing a period of review and change, as part of implementing the 15 recommendations in the Balmforth report (Balmforth, 2021). Changes are also taking place in the United States as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) updated their guidelines for hydro-power projects regulated by the FERC. This paper is an overview of key issues and changes in the United States, as presented at the annual ASDSO conference in Baltimore in September 2022, attended by the authors. This paper is intended to inform the debate in the UK on options for change to ensure that dams and reservoirs meet public safety standards whilst at the same time avoiding disproportionate expense on investigations and studies where this is not warranted by the level of risk to the public.