Safety for High Hazard Dams in Missouri

Date: March 11, 2008
By: Erika Navarrete
State Capitol Bureau
Links: HB 1994

Intro: Two years after the Taum Sauk reservoir catastrophe, legislators are still figuring out what to do.

Erika Navarrete (Nahv-ah-rett) has more from Jefferson City.

RunTime:0:32
OutCue: SOC

The House Environment Committee heard a bill that would establish tougher safety regulations on high hazard dams.

Missouri has 1,200 dams that are at risk of failure and loss of life.

Committee Member Republican Representative, Jeff Grisamore, is in favor of the bill.

Actuality: GRISMORE.WAV

Run Time: 00:06

Description: "I actually have a good friend that lost his wife and four children in a flash flood. So it's something we take seriously."

Seven people testified in favor and only one in opposition.

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.

Reporting from the State Capitol, I'm Erika Navarrete, KMOX News.

Intro: The collapse of the Taum Sauk reservoir, over two years ago, has finally prompted The Dam and Reservoir Safety bill.

Erika Navarrete (Nahv-ah-rett) has more from the State Capitol.

RunTime:
OutCue: SOC The bill would establish tougher safety regulations on the 1,200 high hazard dams in Missouri.

Ken Brackenbush, representing the Missouri Land Improvement Contractors Association, was the only witness that testified in opposition to the bill.

Brackenbush said the association would only support the bill if all the regulation fees were eliminated.

Actuality: KEN.WAV

Run Time: 00:08

Description: "It's, you know, quite of burden on the land owner to come up with that, and probably some of them won't even build a dam. If they have to pay that much of a fee."

Brackenbush also said it was unethical for the land owners to pay for the cost from their own pockets.

Reporting from Jefferson City, I'm Erika Navarrete, KMOX News.

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