"Let's be honest – there's never going to be enough money to
fix all of the dams", counsels James Demby, a civil engineer in the dam-safety
program for the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Unfortunately,
Demby may be right. According to the 2007 National Inventory of Dams (NID), a
study from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, there are over 82,000 dams in the United States.
Of this number, nearly 12,000 are considered to be high-hazard structures whose
failure puts the lives of 20.5 million Americans at risk. Repairing the most
dangerous structures would cost $10 billion (USD) alone. Fixing all of the
nation's 82,000 dams would cost an estimated $40 billion. That's only a
fraction of the money in the 2007 federal highway bill, but as writer Ken Olsen
explains, "no one drives a damn to work".
The Dam Government
State and federal agencies are responsible for the nation's
highways and bridges, but the majority of dams are privately-owned. Then there
are the 3,700 structures that don't have an identifiable owner. Groups such as
the Association of State Dam Safety Officials are working to improve the safety
of all dams, but 21 states still lack the authority to require the
establishment of emergency action and evacuation plans. Some would argue that the
avoidance of responsibility is part of a larger strategy. During the 1970s and
1980s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inspected 9,000 non-federal dams and deemed
2,900 of these structures unsafe. "The governors were getting a list of dams every
30 days that they should take care of," claims Charles Karpowicz, a former
dam-safety inspector for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Unwilling to
redirect tax dollars, however, the governors – claims Karpowicz – helped squash
the federal inspection program.
Potential Dam Disasters
Today, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates 610 dams,
many of which are over 50 years old. Six of these structures, by the Corps' own
admission, are in danger of failure. These dams include Tennessee's
Center Hill Dam and Kentucky's
Wolf Creek Dam, both of which are anchored in eroding limestone. If either dam
breaks, Nashville, Tennessee would be at risk. The U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers has also classified another group of American dams as
"unsafe or potentially unsafe". This category includes Dworshak Dam in northern
Idaho, a
concrete structure which is leaking around the joints and foundation. The
collapse of the Dworshak Dam would threaten downstream communities such as Lewiston (population
30,904) and take 400-MW of electricity-generating capacity off-line.
Dam Report Cards
In its Report Card for America's infrastructure, the
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gives better ratings to bridges ("C")
than to dams ("D"). Meanwhile, because "no one drives a dam" to work, money for
dam-inspection and repairs is limited. In an article for The American Legion Magazine called "Damned if we don't", Ken Olsen
notes that Texas
has just two engineers to monitor 7,400 dams. States such as Oregon don't fare much better, with two
engineers responsible for 1,200 dams. Residents whose homes and lives are at
risk are often unaware that their communities would be in the path of a potential
torrent.
Resources:
http://www.legion.org/national/divisions/magazine/release?id=90
http://www.tec.army.mil/fact_sheet/nid.pdf
http://www.asce.org/asce.cfm
http://www.damsafety.org/
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