The Nevada Division of Water Resources is charged with dam safety pursuant to Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) 535.  The goal of Nevada's dam safety program is to avoid dam failure and thus prevent loss of life and destruction of property. This is accomplished by careful review of new dam applications, on-site inspection of the dams being built, review of as-built drawings and QA/QC reports and finally, through periodic visual inspections of the structures themselves.

The Dams feature class is a dataset derived from NDWRs internal database to locate each dam within Nevada.  The location of these dams is mapped based on any of the following information received from the applicant or while conducting a site inspection:  coordinate location, bearing/distance based on monument tie, application map that could be georeferenced, parcel number or location description that could be identified on a topo map.  Some older dams or unknown dams located throughout the state may not be mapped due to lack of sufficient location information.

The Dam Safety Section of NDWR is responsible for reviewing and approving dam applications, for new construction, reconstruction and alterations of any dams, as well as conducting visual inspections of each facility based on the facilities hazard classification.