ABSTRACT
The United States Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) has been in existence for over 100 years with the goal of reclaiming arid lands west of the Mississippi River by constructing irrigation projects. To that goal, Reclamation has built over 300 major embankment dams that have the potential to result in life loss in the event of failure. Reclamation has a public trust responsibility tomanage these dams in a safe, environmentally conscious, and fiscally responsible manner that places it in a self regulating position. Beginning in earnest in 1998, Reclamation decided to commit to a process guided by evaluation of risk in order to manage its dam safety decisions.
