Committee discusses H.778 changes to dam‑safety emergency plans and 'Whole Community' engagement

The committee reviewed a new draft of H.778 on April 17 that revises how emergency operations plans (EOPs) for dams are drafted and reviewed.

Agency and budget staff told lawmakers the draft replaces specific contact lists with a capitalized reference to the "Whole Community" approach to planning used in FEMA guidance. They said the capitalized term is intended as a term of art directing planners to that guidance rather than to a statutory definition.

The amendments clarify that the EOPs should recommend actions for municipalities downstream of state and federal dams, not plans for the dam themselves, and that planners should coordinate with administrators or managers of facilities housing vulnerable populations when developing downstream plans. Staff also removed a statutory requirement that the division recommend funding sources and instead directed it to identify organizations that might assist municipalities in accessing funding.

The director and staff said the draft is intended for a pilot project and uses existing FEMA guidance as an operational reference; committee members asked whether referring to a 15‑year‑old guidance document is appropriate for statutory text and discussed whether to adopt a narrower state definition for future codification.

Staff said they will prepare a clean draft and bring the bill back for further consideration next week.