Two bills that would strengthen Maine’s lax dam safety regulations and replenish a long-depleted loan program for municipal dam repairs cleared their first hurdle when lawmakers voted them out of committee earlier this month.

This preliminary approval puts Maine one step closer to beefing up staffing at the state’s dam safety agency and setting aside funding for the state’s most decrepit dams.

How the two bipartisan proposals will fare in front of the full legislature or on the appropriations table, however, is less certain. 

Members of the criminal justice and public safety committee acknowledged that budget constraints could jeopardize L.D. 1382 — which would allocate $5 million in loans for municipally-owned dam repairs — before voting 12-1 to recommend the bill’s passage.

The committee went on to show less appetite for the broader dam safety reform bill, L.D. 1848, and its proposed $400,000 budget for the state’s ailing Dam Safety Program, advancing it on a narrower 9-4 margin.

Low funding and chronic understaffing have long plagued the dam safety program, and state officials have warned that this leaves the agency toothless, incapable of compelling owners of the most derelict Maine dams to make necessary repairs. 

The program’s proposed budget in L.D. 1848 marks a $200,000 increase from what it currently receives through a combination of state and federal funds. Much of that funding would be used to pay the state’s chief dam inspector, a position that went vacant for so long in recent years that the office had to pull its former chief inspector out of retirement.

The additional funding would also go toward the salaries of an assistant dam inspector and an emergency response coordinator; both of whom would support the bill’s proposals to bolster the state’s enforcement actions against the owners of the most dangerous dams, map the fallout of potential dam failures and require more thorough guidelines for testing dams’ emergency action plans, which are meant to outline an evacuation plan for neighboring residents in the case of dam failure.

Steven Mallory, director of the Maine Dam Safety Program, told committee members that unless those positions are funded at a competitive level, the agency would be unable to implement the new proposals and bring Maine dams up to compliance. 

Mallory also reminded legislators that because of recent funding cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which funds a portion of the state dam safety program’s budget, there is increasing need to build self-reliance within the program and its parent department, the Maine Emergency Management Agency.

“From a public safety perspective, our dams are in trouble,” Mallory told committee members. “This proposed legislation would put us in a really good spot.”

Despite showing initial appetite to amend L.D. 1848 and further tighten dam safety regulations, the committee ultimately approved the same version introduced by Rep. Nina Milliken (D-Blue Hill) and a coalition of other Hancock County legislators.

Milliken has authored multiple other dam-related bills this session, including L.D. 1382, and reminded committee members of the problem dams lurking in her district and beyond that would benefit from the $5 million loan fund allocation and strengthened dam safety program.

“There’s 970-something dams in the state (and) they’re in various states of disrepair,” Milliken said. “I think likely there’s a dam in all of our districts that are in need of repairs.”

James Woidt, a principal engineer for Maine-based Redfish Engineering who has studied Maine’s dam safety program, told The Maine Monitor that the two bills’ associated costs are worth the benefits they would provide Maine residents. 

Although Maine has seen relatively few dam failures over the past 50 years, totaling a few million dollars in damages, Woidt says that doesn’t mean the same will be true for the next 50 years.

“These dams are old, and they’re getting older with less maintenance and seeing bigger, badder storms that they haven’t seen in their lives,” Woidt said. “When you look at it from that, $400,000 is not that much considering the humongous impact of… something going wrong at these dams.

This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit civic news organization. To get regular coverage from The Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here.