Technical Assistance for Dam Mitigation
Technical Assistance for Dam Mitigation helps Iowa dam owners, managers, and partners plan, design, and implement projects to reduce dam safety hazards and improve fish passage.
Funder: Iowa Department of Natural Resources
Due Dates: Rolling (Technical assistance requests)
Funding Amounts: Technical assistance only; no monetary grant
Summary: Supports Iowa dam owners and partners with planning, design, and implementation assistance to reduce safety hazards and improve fish passage.
Key Information: Watershed-size priorities are at least 25 square miles in urban areas and 50 square miles for rural streams.
Description
Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) River Programs provides technical assistance to dam owners, managers, and partners seeking to reduce safety hazards and fish-passage barriers at dams in Iowa. Assistance spans early concept development, project design, and implementation, including locally acceptable approaches to stabilizing or decommissioning deteriorated, obsolete, or hazardous dams.
The program addresses hazards such as the powerful recirculating currents at low-head dams that can trap and drown river users and would-be rescuers. DNR supports warning signage, public education and community input, river-channel surveys, mitigation concepts, and river-restoration design. It also helps owners develop requests for proposals, identify funding, prepare bid documents, manage projects, and address permitting and regulatory compliance.
