T
he District is the local sponsor of the original 23 dams built across south central Williamson County which includes the commitment to safely operate, protect, and maintain the earthen dams. The original dams were built by the federal agency previously know as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) which is now known as the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).
Our youngest dam is more than 50 years old. It difficult to age gracefully when you are exposed to gravity and the Texas weather for over five decades. The District inspects all its dams regularly to evaluate their condition. These health checks allow staff to make sound management decisions, investing resources in the right places at the right time.
All of our dams are classified as high hazard. Rapid urbanization coupled with increased regulations resulted in the State designating all of District’s Dams as High Hazard due to downstream risks. (High Hazard refers to the consequences of a dam failure not the likelihood of one.) the District focused on meeting TCEQ’s updated standards for high hazard dams to safely pass the PMF (Probable Maximum Flood). These projects mainly raised the height of dams creating additional storage capacity to allow the flows to safely pass through the spillways; however, the projects did not include comprehensive rehabilitation efforts. The District’s focus was getting all the dams in compliance with the new regulations as quickly as possible. The final dam modernization project will start in 2020.