Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board
In 2024, Halff assessed nine high hazard dams, located in Hays and Erath counties, in coordination with the Texas State Office of the National Resources Conservation Service. These assessments included site inspection, hydrologic/hydraulic analyses, alternative evaluations, development of repair and maintenance actions and risk assessments. This endeavor served to assist Sponsoring Local Organizations (SLOs) in determining potential dam rehabilitation action points. In addition, NRCS used the reports to identify high-priority watershed rehabilitation projects and to identify short-term needs.
The Halff team performed site visits to document the conditions of each existing dam, appurtenances, operation and maintenance. NRCS’ SITES models were developed to determine hydrologic performance and evaluate potential alternatives to meet Texas and NRCS dam safety criteria. Halff also performed dam breach analysis and created inundation maps using HEC-RAS 2D models.
Based on the inundation results and potential downstream impacts, Halff developed a recommended hazard classification for each dam. In addition, NRCS standard spreadsheets were used to estimate the failure index, risk index and population at risk for each site.
After identifying potential rehabilitation alternatives, Halff prepared planning-level construction cost estimates for each. The assessments also included recommendations for maintenance and rehabilitation projects based on the site inspections and performance of each dam.
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