Which states give dam owners one fixed annual filing deadline?

Four of the states Dam-Sure covers set a single calendar date that applies to everyone in scope: Georgia (30 April), Ohio (30 June), Pennsylvania (31 December), and New York (31 January, for intermediate and high hazard dams only). North Carolina instead publishes a rolling per-dam anniversary.

Do all states use the same kind of dam filing deadline?

No. State dam safety programmes use three different shapes: one fixed calendar date for every owner, a rolling per-dam anniversary published by the state, or a window that starts whenever your own engineer inspection happens. A deadline that exists in one state may have no equivalent in the next.

Which states publish no dam filing deadline at all?

Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Wisconsin publish no anchor date a deadline can be computed from. In Massachusetts and Connecticut the report is due within 30 days of a PE inspection, and in Wisconsin within 90 days, so the clock starts when you inspect rather than on a date the state sets.

Dam safety filing deadlines by state

Every state runs its own clock. Here is what each one actually asks a dam owner to file, and when.

The three shapes a deadline comes in

There is no national dam filing deadline, and state programmes are not variations on one template — they are genuinely different models. Knowing which shape your state uses tells you whether your date is already fixed, already published, or does not exist yet at all.

1. One fixed calendar date

The state names a date and every owner in scope files by it, regardless of when the dam was built or last inspected. Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York work this way.

2. A rolling per-dam anniversary

The state publishes a date per dam — usually keyed to when your last submission was approved — so two neighbouring owners have different deadlines. North Carolina works this way.

3. A window that opens when you inspect

There is no date on the calendar until your engineer inspects; the filing is then due a set number of days later. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Wisconsin work this way, which is why no deadline can be computed for them in advance.

The eight states Dam-Sure covers

Dam owner filing deadlines for the eight states in Dam-Sure's dam inventory
State	Agency	What the owner files	Deadline	Date shown in Dam-Sure
Georgia	EPD Safe Dams Program	Annual report	30 April — same date for every owner	Yes
Ohio	ODNR Division of Water Resources	Annual dam-safety fee (Class I–III); liability certification (exempt dams)	30 June — same date for everyone in scope	Yes
Pennsylvania	DEP, 25 Pa. Code Ch. 105	PE-sealed annual report	31 December — same date for every owner	Yes
New York	NYSDEC Dam Safety	Annual certification	31 January — intermediate and high hazard only	Yes, above the hazard threshold
North Carolina	NCDEQ Dam Safety (DEMLR)	EAP resubmission	Rolling — your own anniversary, published per dam	Yes, where the state publishes a date for that dam
Massachusetts	MassDEP Office of Dam Safety	PE inspection report	30 days after the inspection	No — no anchor date is published
Connecticut	CT DEEP, State Dams & Dam Safety	PE inspection report	30 days after the inspection	No — no anchor date is published
Wisconsin	Wisconsin DNR	Inspection report	90 days after the inspection	No — published inspection dates are too sparse to rely on

The last column is deliberately honest about the gaps. Where a state publishes nothing to anchor a date to, Dam-Sure says so instead of inventing one — a fabricated deadline is worse than a missing one. Look up your dam to see what is actually on file for it.

The rest of the country

Dam-Sure holds inventory for the eight states above. The notes below come from a separate review of all 50 states and DC, summarised here because the question comes up constantly — but they are research notes at varying confidence, not a compliance guarantee. Check with your own state agency before acting on any of it.

States where the state does the inspecting

California, Texas, Washington, Mississippi, Colorado, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Arkansas put the inspection burden largely on the agency rather than the owner. The owner responds to findings and keeps records; there is generally no proactive annual filing date. California's DSOD inspects annually itself, and Texas exempts a large class of private dams from the regime wholesale.

Hybrid states

Idaho, Montana, Arizona, Utah, Indiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Alaska, Vermont, Virginia, New Jersey, and Maryland split the work: the owner self-inspects or hires a PE on a hazard-based schedule, and the state inspects on its own cycle. Most set a frequency rather than a filing date — Virginia is the clearest exception, with a 30-day window after an inspection.

Alabama

Alabama is the only state with no state-level dam safety regulatory programme at all.

Not yet sourced

For roughly twenty further states — including Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, and Tennessee — a dam safety programme exists, but the specific owner-filing requirements and deadlines were not sourced to a standard worth publishing. They are listed as unknown here rather than guessed at.

Why this is hard to track by hand

The checklist you inspect with differs by state too — see what each state's is built from. An owner with dams in two states has two unrelated clocks, and a consultancy signing reports across a region may be tracking four or five shapes at once. That is the problem Dam-Sure is built around: the deadline is computed per state from that state's own rule, rather than being a reminder you set yourself and hope you got right. See how firms use it.

Compiled from each state agency's own published material — Georgia EPD's Safe Dams Program, NCDEQ, NYSDEC, ODNR, PA DEP, MassDEP, CT DEEP, and Wisconsin DNR — alongside ASDSO summary data for states outside Dam-Sure's coverage. Confidence varies by state and is lowest outside the eight covered above. This page is informational, not legal advice — verify current requirements with your own state agency directly.

Requirements by state: Connecticut · Georgia · Massachusetts · North Carolina · New York · Ohio · Pennsylvania · Wisconsin