Dam Security Course Training

Keeping critical infrastructure safe and secure is the goal of an intensive security course presented throughout the U.S. by Gannett Fleming’s Security and Safety team. The program provides three days of dam security course training that covers security program requirements, physical security principles, and the application of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) Dam Assessment Matrix for the Security and Vulnerability Risk (DAMSVR) process. Additionally, students learn what goes into an Internal response and rapid recovery plan as prescribed by FERC.

Course content can be tailored to the particular organizational structure and security needs of each client to ensure its practicality. An emphasis on continually updating content to reflect current federal and state guidelines, including the most recent guidelines concerning cybersecurity, strengthens the course’s relevancy. Hundreds of dam personnel and stakeholders have successfully completed the course in the past five years, enhancing their knowledge of sound security principles and security requirements for dams and hydropower facilities.

Coursework features site visits to nearby dam facilities, including, in the past, Pyramid Dam, Pardee Dam, and the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project in California and the Lake Murray Dam in South Carolina. Site visits provide participants with the opportunity to apply the skills they learn in class to conduct a site assessment, which is used as the foundation for exercises the following day.

When the course is complete, participants possess actionable skills, such as security plan development, improved communication with inspectors, and a deeper understanding of how to identify vulnerabilities at their project sites.

• Site visits to area dams facilitate development of actionable security-assessment skills.
• Continually updated course content ensures relevancy to changing security environment.
• Coursework enhances understanding of physical security concepts and design fundamentals.

• Practical knowledge applying security and vulnerability risk studies to dams and hydropower facilities.
• Enhanced security plan development skills for hundreds of course participants.
• Improved communication with inspectors strengthens security compliance.