(a) (1) On or before January 1, 2019, the Division of Safety of Dams, in consultation with independent, national dam safety and dam safety risk management organizations, including, but not limited to, the Association of State Dam Safety Officials and the United States Society on Dams, shall propose amendments to its dam safety inspection and reevaluation protocols to incorporate updated best practices, including risk management, to ensure public safety.

(2) Each proposed amendment, at minimum, shall provide an estimated range of potential cost to implement the new protocol and resulting required remediation, if any. The proposed amendments shall specify which dams the protocol applies to.

(3) The amendments proposed in paragraph (1) shall provide, at a minimum, that re-evaluations of extremely high hazard and high hazard dams include the review of the original design and construction, geotechnical, structural, hydraulic, hydrological, geologic, seismic hazard, monitoring and instrumentation, and overall dam performance, as applicable to the feature being re-evaluated.

(b) (1) Every ten years, the Division of Safety of Dams, in consultation with national dam safety organizations, shall reassess the previously adopted amendments and propose additional amendments as necessary. This section does not preclude more frequent revisions as needed.

(2) The department shall notify dam owners and the Legislature of the Division of Safety of Dams’ intent to update its dam safety inspection and reevaluation protocols prior to amending the protocols. The department shall also provide notice on its public Internet Web site of the planned update and the schedule for the update.

(3) The department shall make its dam safety inspection and reevaluation protocols and any updates to the protocols available on its Internet Web site.

(c) (1) The department shall report to the Governor and the Legislature on the amendments developed pursuant to subdivisions (a) and (b) and shall continue to coordinate with appropriate federal entities.

(2) A report to be submitted to the Legislature pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.

(Added by Stats. 2018, Ch. 3, Sec. 4. (AB 1270) Effective February 26, 2018.)