POLSON — Local citizens keeping a casual ear on the police scanner might have done a double-take last week when an urgent message crackled over the radio describing a situation of “imminent failure” at Kerr Dam. Despite the dire news, any sense of alarm was short-lived, as another radio call shortly thereafter established that the drill was simply a routine procedural test that the dam is required to perform each year.

Lake County Office of Emergency Management coordinator Stephen Stanley reported that the test was solely performed over the radio to rehearse the proper phone tree hierarchy, and did not involve practicing the deployment of any emergency personnel. A larger enactment of a dam failure “of magnitude” takes place every five years, Stanley explained.

“(The test) happens annually and every five years they do a big functional, six- to seven-hour drill,” said Stanley.

The test is a prudent measure that reflects the “better safe than sorry” ethos of dam and emergency officials, alike.

“(Bonneville Power Administration) has been a great partner in preparedness planning,” said Stanley. Stanley noted that after BPA cedes control of the dam to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in 2015, the same requirements for emergency testing will remain in place.

While failure of Kerr Dam would certainly be a catastrophe, Stanley downplayed the notion of such an event becoming an all-out doomsday scenario for most area residents, saying that the gorge straddled by the dam naturally restricts the flow of the Flathead River and that much of the land immediately below the dam is sparsely-populated farmland.

“It would be more of a problem downstream in Dixon and Sanders County,” said Stanley. He mentioned that officials have even made maps estimating the levels of inundation that those communities would experience as a result of various levels of dam failure.

Stanley said that emergency planning extends far beyond just Kerr Dam.

“We have plans for every dam on the Reservation,” said Stanley.

“They’re not stagnant plans,” he added. “They get dragged off the shelves and reviewed annually.”