dam/public safety Discussion

Power generators from senior management to operators face a web of requirements, risks and potential liabilities.  In this session, we will discuss these challenges in the following areas:
·       Assembling & Managing a Board of Consultants (Laura Ohman/EWEB)
·       Public Safety & Risk Rating (Diane Barr, Camas LLC)
·       Succession Planning for CDSE (Ali Firoozfar/SCL)
·       Upcoming Public Safety Guidelines (Steve Hocking/FERC)
 
Who Should Attend: Dam Safety Engineers, Public Safety Managers, Senior Risk Managers, Attorneys, Consultants.
 
Why You Should Attend: We live in a complex world with ever-increasing risks, regulations and liabilities.  Attending this session will refresh your understanding of these issues that affect your daily activities.

Paul Meeks, moderator
PRESIDENT, worthington Products

speakers

Diane Barr
Principal, Camas, LLC
About Diane: Ms. Diane Barr has supported the hydro industry for over 25 years in permitting and regulatory strategy and dam safety. She brings the perspective of a utility as a former employee of PacifiCorp and Brookfield Renewable and as a consultant. Her career in the last 10 years has broadened into dam safety aspects and operations. Ms. Barr facilitates FERC Board of Consultants processes and is recognized as an industry public safety expert in and around dams. She is providing public safety program management and support on over 50 dams with advanced assessment methods used domestically and internationally. In addition, in December she was appointed to the United States Society of Dams - Committee on Public Safety, Security, and Emergency Management for Dams (COPSSEM).

Ali Firoozfar
Chief Dam Safety Engineer, Seattle City Light
about Ali: Ali is a professional engineer with over 13 years of experience in dams and hydraulic structures working in various roles and capacities in public, private and academic sectors. Ali has a PhD in Civil Engineering and currently works as Chief Dam Safety Engineer for Seattle City Light.

Steve Hocking
FERC
About Steve: Steve works for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission within the Division of Dam Safety and Inspections (D2SI). He’s the public safety coordinator responsible for assisting the Commission’s five regional offices with public safety incident reporting and resolution. He’s also a liaison with the other two hydro divisions: the Division of Hydropower Administration and Compliance (DHAC) and the Division of Hydropower Licensing (DHL). Steve has 30 years of experience working at FERC with 17 of those years in DHAC, 10 years in DHL, and 3 years in D2SI. While in DHL, Steve worked in the Northwest Branch and helped relicense several local projects including Clackamas, Baker River, Spokane River, Big Fork, and the Mystic Lake Projects.

Laura Ohman
Senior Civil Engineer, Eugene Water and Electric Board
About Laura: Laura Ohman is a Senior Civil Engineer for the Carmen-Smith License Deployment Team at the Eugene Water & Electric Board, in Eugene, Oregon. Since starting her career in hydro with EWEB in 2010, Laura has managed complex projects within Generation, Dam Safety, and Relicensing aspects of the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project. She is currently the Project Manager for upstream and downstream fish passage at Trail Bridge Dam, as well as several habitat and infrastructure projects. In addition to license implementation projects, Laura took on the responsibility for establishing a Board of Consultants for EWEB in Summer 2021. Since inception, she has managed the content and process of the Board, resulting in a number of investigations and projects to improve dam safety at the Carmen-Smith Project. Laura has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota, and has been a Professional Engineer since 2017.

Northwest Hydroelectric Association
providing a regional forum for the hydropower industry

P.O. Box 441 Lake Oswego, OR 97034
Phone: 503-502-7262    Fax: 503-253-9172  Email: info@nwhydro.org