ALBANY - The state Department of Environmental Conservation recently proposed tougher dam safety rules after an audit by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office found serious problems that have existed in some dams in New York State for as long as 36 years and have not been fixed.

DEC has identified 133 high and intermediate hazard dams located in areas where failure would cause serious property damage and in some cases loss of life with high priority deficiencies. Under the current law, DEC can require a dam owner to repair or remove a dam if its condition has been rated as unsafe or unsound and poses an imminent threat of failure.

Given the number of dams identified that were in continuous disrepair, DiNapoli recommended that DEC’s enforcement authority be expanded to allow it to take action against dam owners who fail to fix deficiencies within a reasonable amount of time even if those problems fall short of the current threshold of causing imminent threat of dam failure.

The audit, which examined the period of January 2004 through February 2007, identified several problems with New York’s dam safety program including lax oversight, deficient for long periods of time, engineering reports not done, and not following policies.

In the report, auditors recommended that DEC seek sufficient funding and staff to enforce the timely correction of deficient dams; devote appropriate number of staff to dam inspection to accomplish a number of needed dam inspections; establish written procedures containing specific timeframes for progressing from voluntary compliance by dam owners to enforcement, as well as regulations requiring dam owners to file emergency action plans; develop a methodology to track when information is due from owners and when follow up actions should be taken; update guidelines to reflect current practices; and improve database maintenance and staff training.