Methodology

DamLookup.com is a public reference tool built from the National Inventory of Dams, maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The site makes federal dam records searchable by address, state, county, and individual dam.

What the fields mean

• Hazard potential describes the expected consequences if a dam failed. It does not measure the probability that failure will happen.
• High hazard generally means failure would probably cause loss of human life downstream.
• Significant hazard generally means failure could cause economic or environmental damage, but loss of life is not expected.
• Condition assessment describes the reported physical condition of the dam, where available.
• Emergency Action Plan indicates whether an EAP is recorded in the NID, when reported.

Limitations

Dam data can be incomplete, delayed, or reported differently by state agencies. Some inspection dates, condition assessments, ownership fields, and EAP fields are blank or not publicly available. DamLookup.com is not an official safety determination and should not be used as a substitute for state dam safety offices, emergency managers, or local officials.

Update policy

The current deployed dataset is treated as last materially updated on 2026-05-15. Sitemap timestamps use this stable dataset date rather than pretending every page changes daily.

For reusable data files, see Data Downloads. For reporter-friendly summaries, see Press Resources and Dam Report Cards.