RONAN — A small team of 11 employees in Ronan is playing a major role in keeping communities safe across the West and the nation by monitoring dams around the clock.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs National Monitoring Center tracks 140 dams 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The monitored sites stretch across the western United States to Alaska, and as far away as the Pushmataha Dam on the Choctaw Indian Reservation in Mississippi, located 1,600 miles from the Ronan facility.
"We utilize internet and websites to remotely monitor 140 dams across the nation," Ambrose Cook-Saloway said.
Cook-Saloway is the program manager for the National Monitoring Center. The facilities monitored by the program, such as Mission Dam in St. Ignatius, are not hydroelectric dams generating power. Instead, the center uses sensors and cameras to track water elevation levels, providing critical data that could save lives when conditions change.
"The notifications we provide are put in place so we can provide before emergencies happen, we are part of an early warning system," Cook-Saloway said.
The goal of the program is prevention.
"When we see a change in local dams we will promptly notify them and get ahold of them directly," Cook-Saloway said.
The monitoring center represents one part of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes' broader mission to protect their waters.
"What you really get enjoyment out of, is knowing you are doing something for communities," Cook-Saloway said.
"It is a real sense of pride being able to say hey we helped this community remain safe today," Cook-Saloway said.
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