Leitner: SC needs to regulate, hold dam owners responsible

Members of the House Agricultural Subcommittee, we are told, gutted Speaker Jay Lucas’ bill to strengthen South Carolina’s dam-safety law because they didn’t want to burden the owners of dams that fall under state regulation.

My family and I know something of the burden born by property owners and so many others since the floods of October — the floods that initially shone a light on just how weak our state’s dam-safety program is.

In the pre-dawn hours of Oct. 4, heavy rains and a major dam failure upstream of us sent water pouring through our neighborhood and into our home. My family and I are incredibly fortunate as flood victims go. As heavy as it is, our burden is light compared to so many others. Our home is repairable, and we hope to be able to return sometime this spring. Many owners are stuck in limbo, working to figure just how much financial burden if any they can manage to absorb in order to repair and keep their homes.

Some homes are already lost. Some were driven from homes that they rented and thus have no power to even consider putting back together. Countless lives were endangered. People fled their homes, many in the dark, many with children and other vulnerable family members in tow. Worst of all, lives were lost, across the Columbia area and just downstream of us. It’s a miracle, considering the currents I witnessed, that the tragic loss of life was not even higher. The urgency immediately following this disaster is mostly past, but many will carry the burden of its effects on their families, homes, neighbors and communities for a long time to come.

It was in the wake of this disaster that we learned that South Carolina’s dam-safety program is currently ranked second worst in the nation. Nearly 50 regulated dams failed in the state. Many of them were known to not meet safety standards and to be in need of repair.

The good news is that we have an opportunity to change our poor safety record. And the House Agriculture Subcommittee’s response is to make our current law and regulations even weaker? Really?

Rep. Russell Ott said he didn’t want a knee-jerk reaction to the flooding. Then he embraced just that. How else can one describe the unanimous subcommittee vote to arbitrarily raise the minimum height by five feet for a dam to be covered by our already-weak dam-safety program? How else can one describe the plan to strip dam-safety officials of the ability to follow up on citizens’ complaints of potentially failing dams with inspection? Failing dams that may threaten downstream life and property.

We need a common-sense response to the October disaster to improve the safety of South Carolina’s dams. The bill introduced by Speaker Lucas provides such a response. It would make dam owners responsible for having their dams inspected by qualified engineers and require dam owners to repair dams that are not up to safety standards. The bill would require owners of high-hazard dams to provide financial assurance so those dams can be either repaired or removed by the state if they do not make improvements themselves to meet safety standards. These and other improvements in the law are consistent with standards recommended by the Association of State Dam Safety Officials and would make South Carolina a safer place for families and businesses.

South Carolina’s citizens have shown great strength and resiliency in their collective response to the historic floods of October. It is now time for the Legislature to show its strength by overcoming the poorly conceived changes to this legislation approved by the House subcommittee. Our legislators must seize the opportunity this session to move South Carolina up from the bottom of the nation’s dam-safety programs and better protect the people they were elected to represent.

This story was originally published March 7, 2016 at 12:28 AM.