BLM Employees and Permittee Honored for Quick Action to Prevent Potential Dam Failure

A grazing permit operator and BLM employees from the North Central Montana District earned special recognition Aug. 16 for their actions to prevent a BLM dam near Harlem, Montana, from potentially failing during the unusually high-flow spring runoff season in 2023.

Sonya Germann, BLM-Montana/Dakotas state director, presented the State Director’s Award for Safety to Frank Baldik, BLM grazing permit operator; Abby Hall, rangeland management specialist; Ben Hileman, field manager; Ken Koncilya, civil engineer; Jeremy McKellar, rangeland management specialist; Craig Miller, wildlife biologist (all of the Havre Field Office); and Scott Meneely, Malta Field Office engineering equipment operator. Clint Crowley, a Havre Field Office range technician, also received the safety award, but was unavailable to attend the presentation.

This response team experienced the call to action during late-April 2023, when snowmelt and runoff poured into the reservoir of the Havre Field Office’s BR-43 retention dam, filling it to maximum capacity. That high water level revealed a weakened area of the earthen-filled dam structure and water was rapidly seeping and piping through the dam, posing a high risk of evolving into a full-on dam breach.

The Havre and Malta field offices employees devised a plan to lower the water level of the reservoir to a safe elevation which would relieve pressure from the dam and lessen the probability of failure.

Baldik joined the BLM effort occurring near the grazing allotment he operated. He kept a high-volume water pump fueled up, enabling it to pump water out of the reservoir and down the spillway around the clock.

Once the water level was lowered, Meneely excavated a cut-off trench, 120-feet-long by 2-feet-wide and 4-feet deep, then filled and recompacted the trench, effectively repairing the piping that had occurred. The situation was a temporary fix, but enough that Koncilya was confident that catastrophic failure was no longer a risk at that time. Permanent repairs were implemented in October 2023.

“Frank’s willingness to help our BLM team by keeping that water pump fueled up so it could pump reservoir water downstream 24/7 ultimately bought the BLM additional time to employ a more permanent solution,” said Hileman. “Thanks to the quick actions and teamwork of all involved, this potential critical safety situation turned into a collaborative success story.”

The BLM-Montana/Dakotas State Director Awards Program for 2023 recognized deserving employees and partner organizations for their individual and group efforts. Award categories included: Excellence Through Leadership, Team Accomplishment, Diversity and Equity, Safety and Partnership categories.

Dam Details: The BR-43 dam, located near Harlem, Montana, is rated a Hazard Class Dam. It was built in 1936 and measures 21 feet high and 385 feet long, with a maximum reservoir capacity of 53 acre feet (more than 35 Olympic-sized swimming pools). If a catastrophic failure of this dam had occurred when the reservoir was at full pool, the residents located in the inundation zone downstream of the dam would likely have been subjected to major flooding conditions, and flood waters would reach Montana State Highway 241.