Steve is a licensed professional engineer with over 40 years of consulting engineering experience. He is the Birmingham Office Manager and a Senior Project Manager for TTL, Inc. He has planned, managed, designed and provided construction services for municipal, industrial and federal projects which include drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, roads, bridges, hazardous/solid waste facilities and dams. He was the overall project manager for the Duck River Dam in Cullman which is an alternate water supply that was completed in 2015. He is currently the chairman of the Alabama Safe Dam Coalition Technical Committee. The mission of this committee is to develop the framework for legislation for a dam safety program in Alabama. Steve also served as the chairman for the American Society of Civil Engineers 2022 Infrastructure Report Card for Dams in Alabama.

Dams provide the needed infrastructure for control and retention of water for various uses including raw water supply for multiple water utilities in Alabama.  Some Alabama water utilities utilize reservoirs that have been formed by dams owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority, private power companies that utilize hydropower, or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  Each of these entities have their own dam safety and inspection programs.  Other Alabama water utilities own and operate dams for their water supplies and there is currently no dam safety program in Alabama to provide guidance for inspection, monitoring and rehabilitation of these dams.  The purpose of a state dam safety program is to evaluate, quantify and understand the risks to dam owners and downstream properties and people.

Many states with existing dam safety programs have adopted standards-based regulations and have struggled to enforce their regulations and/or to manage dam safety risks across their states because of the large inventory of dams and limited resources. Although Alabama is the only state without a dam safety program, agency, or department, the State is positioned to become a leader in evaluating and mitigating dam safety risks by developing and implementing a program that addresses the issues that other states have experienced.

A pilot study is currently underway to develop the framework of a cost-effective dam safety program for Alabama that minimizes the dam safety risk to life and property of the State’s residents. The study and evaluation will be developed based on the lessons learned from other states and drawing on elements from the present state-of-the-practice in dam safety engineering.  The goal of the Alabama Safe Dam Coalition Technical Committee is to help draft dam safety legislation for the Alabama Legislature.  This presentation will provide a current status of the dam safety program along with a preliminary schedule for the program.