This guide was developed to assist dam owners and operators in understanding the possible need for waterside barriers as part of their overall security plan. It provides them and security personnel with a very cursory level of information on barriers and their use, maintenance, and effectiveness—elements that must be carefully taken into account when selecting waterside barriers. The waterside barriers described here are systems or technologies designed to protect critical assets from attack by swimmers or the water-borne vessels commonly found on rivers or reservoirs.

The threat scenarios evaluated in the site vulnerability assessment form the basis for determining if a surface or subsurface barrier technology or barrier system is necessary.The interdiction and use of force policies associated with the use of waterside barriers must also be assessed and resolved as part of the security  plan. Considerations that influence the barrier  technology or barrier system selection in addition to their effectiveness include purchase, installation, maintenance, and replacement costs related to the sites specific environment and the training and staffing of site security forces.

Barriers, something Clark said the DNR hasn’t considered but might, have been erected around spillways at a number of lakes nationwide.

In Illinois, barriers have been added at Lakes Shelbyville and Carlyle in the past few years. The lakes are among the more than 400 across the country owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The barrier at Shelbyville, an 11,000-acre lake about 30 miles southeast of Decatur, was added a few years ago for $57,000, said Alan Dooley, spokesman for the Corps of Engineers St. Louis District.

Signs on the lake had long warned boaters and others to stay at least 600 feet away from the spillway that empties into the Kaskaskia River, Dooley said.”

You do want to provide that additional, I guess you’d call it a passive safety measure,” he added.

The Shelbyville barrier was built by a New Jersey company, Wave Dispersion Technologies Inc. It’s essentially a long cable held on the top of the water by tightly spaced plastic floats.

At $200 to $250 a foot, company owner Dennis Smith said the barriers provide both security – blocking access to anyone who might want to damage or destroy a dam – and safety.

“Usually the dams just need a barrier where something won’t float over it if (their boat is)
disabled,” Smith said. “It’ll stop somebody from drifting over.”

Full Story

AUSTIN, TEXAS, March 9, 2005

Boat Sucked Under Dam

(CBS) A couple in Texas survived when their boat was sucked under the Tom Miller Dam in West Austin as patrons of a nearby outdoor restaurant looked on in horror.

Dirk Hoekstra of Austin and his companion were boating on Lake Austin Monday when the engine quit on his 16-foot fiberglass craft and the boat was swept up against the 60-foot dam.

The woman, Monica Barnes, was pulled unhurt to safety as she clung to the boat. Hoekstra, 34, was swept out of the boat, through the dam?s floodgates and down a 60-foot waterfall to Town Lake. His clothes ripped off during the tumble, Hoekstra swam to shore and summoned help from a nearby apartment. He suffered only “