Assessment of the Bureau of Reclamation's Security Program

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• Publisher: National Academies Press
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN: 9780309125284
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Index: Social Sciences

The water impounded behind a dam can be used to generate power and to provide water for drinking, irrigation, commerce, industry, and recreation. However, if a dam fails, the water that would be unleashed has the energy and power to cause mass destruction downstream, killing and injuring people and destroying property, agriculture, industry, and local and regional economies.The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) is responsible for managing and operating some of this nation's largest and most critical dams. The failure of one or more of these dams as the result of a malicious act would come with little warning and a limited time for evacuation.In the years since the 9/11 attacks, Reclamation has invested significant resources to establish and build a security program. Reclamation is now ready to evaluate the results of these efforts and determine how best to move forward to develop a security program that is robust and sustainable.This book assesses Reclamation's security program and determines its level of preparedness to deter, respond to, and recover from malicious acts to its physical infrastructure and to the people who use and manage it.

Table of contents

• FrontMatter
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Acronyms
• Summary
• 1 Context
• 2 Description of Reclamation’s Security Program
• 3 Assessment of Reclamation’s Security-Related Processes
• 4 Future Plans
• 5 Conclusions and Recommendations
• Appendix A: Biographies of Committee Members
• Appendix B: Briefings to the Committee and Discussions
• Appendix C: Two Approaches to Risk Assessment for Dams