Rewards and Challenges of Growing the Bureau of Indian Affairs Safety of Dams Program

摘要

From 2012 to 2015, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Dam Safety, Security, and Emergency Management (SOD) program has grown significantly in staff and capabilities; other growing SOD programs might be interested in what we have learned and experienced as part of this process. The challenges we have faced along the way include limited funding (annual program funding of ～$25M for a program with over $550M of deferred maintenance) and resistance to change both from the tribes and within the BIA. We have tackled these challenges by: (a) partnering with tribes and other agencies to leverage their expertise and resources, (b) being smarter about how we set up and manage external contracts, (c) growing our internal technical capabilities so that we can do more of the work in-house, and (d) promoting ownership over the program within the branch by rewriting our own handbook. The results of our efforts include not only growth within the BIA SOD Branch, but also tangible benefits to the tribes we support. Specifically, we have observed an increase in tribal involvement and investment in their dam and reservoir systems, and we have been able to improve the safety and functionality of these dam and reservoir systems on tribal lands.