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<br />Section 37-87-114.5 ofC.R.S. exempts certain structures from the State Engineer's approval. <br />These are structures not designed or operated for the purposes of storing water, and include; mill <br />tailing impoundments permitted under Article 32 or Article 33 of title 34 ofC.R.S. (Minerals or <br />Coal Mines), uranium mill tailing and liquid impoundment structures permitted under Article 11 <br />of Title 25 ofC.R.S., siltation structures permitted under Article 33 of Title 34 ofC.R.S. (Coal <br />Mines), and structures that only store water below the natural surface of the ground. <br /> <br />Owners of small dams that do not fall under the jurisdiction of the State Engineer are required to <br />submit a Notice of Intent to Construct a Nonjurisdictional Water Impoundment Structure to the <br />State Engineer prior to beginning construction under Section 37-87-125 of c.R.S. <br /> <br />3.3 Safety Inspections and Construction Observations <br /> <br />The statutes specify that a dam safety inspection must include the review of previous inspection <br />reports and drawings, site inspection of the dam, spillways, outlet facilities, seepage control and <br />measurement system, and permanent monument or monitoring installations. The dam safety <br />inspection dam includes an evaluation of the adequacy ofthe spillway to pass the appropriate <br />inflow design flood based on the size and hazard classification of the dam, an evaluation of the <br />hazard classification and an assessment ofthe adequacy of the Emergency Preparedness Plan. <br />The internal inspection of the outlet works and an evaluation of instrumentation has also been <br />added to the workload as required by the regulations. The hydrologic evaluation of spillways on <br />dams located above elevation 7,500 feet has been postponed, pending the completion of a study <br />of extreme precipitation by the State Engineer and the CWCB as discussed in Section 4.1 of this <br />report. <br /> <br />The findings ofthe dam safety inspection are documented in a report that rates the conditions <br />observed of the several components of the dam and reservoir. The overall conditions are rated as <br />satisfactory, conditionally satisfactory, or unsatisfactory (unsafe) for full storage and a <br />recommendation is made for the safe storage level by the dam safety engineer. The report also <br />identifies the several repair and maintenance items that the owner should take care of and any <br />engineering and monitoring requirements that are deemed necessary to assure the safety ofthe <br />dam. A copy of the Engineers Inspection Report is included in Appendix D. <br /> <br />Procedures have been implemented to begin reporting incidents and the findings of dam safety <br />inspections where orders have been issued to make modifications for safety reasons. Incidents <br />are reported to the Center for the Performance of Dams at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, <br />California. This is a national program that has been developed by the Association of State Dam <br />Safety Officials and the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the accumulation of data <br />for the improvement of design and safety evaluations of dams nationwide. <br /> <br />Orders to repair or maintain the dam usually require the re-inspection of the dam in order to <br />verify that the work has been done in an acceptable manner. Re-inspections also occur to assure <br />follow-up ofthe State Engineer's orders or as requested by the owner. Ifthe dam safety <br />inspection finds that the overall conditions are unsafe, an order is written by the State Engineer <br />restricting the storage of the reservoir to a safe level. Restriction letters are accompanied by <br /> <br />6 <br />