Dam safety | A sustained commitment
The Association of State Dam Safety Officials has issued a stark warning that the US dam industry does not want to go back to the 1970s, with increasing risks of dam failure. Although safety risks have reduced over the past 40 years, the association says there still needs to be a sustained commitment, especially from those making long-term policy and funding decisions
EARLIER THIS YEAR, THE Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO) expressed its concern that government action was directly affecting dam safety programmes. As the Trump Administration worked to ‘dismantle the scientific enterprise’, federal experts were losing their jobs or being encouraged to leave the federal government. These actions, ASDSO agreed with the American Geophysical Union, were weakening the economy, undercutting national security, and endangering the health and well-being of all Americans.
Endangering
Below: Remnants of the spillway at Teton Dam in Idaho, US which failed in 1976. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials says risks associated with dam failure have been reduced over the past 40 plus years, but the country doesn’t want to go back to the 1970s when there was a series of failing dams
Twenty-four federal agencies across the US are responsible for coordinating dam programmes. They also own and/or regulate over 5000 dams and contribute to improving public safety and the science of dam engineering through research and data analysis. Scientists and engineers across various departments, such as the Department of Commerce, Defence, Army, Interior, Energy, Agriculture, plus the US Power Marketing Administrations, are ultimately responsible for the safety of 90,000 dams across the US. “Without a sustained commitment by those within the engineering and scientific communities overseeing these structures, as well as those making long-term policy and funding decisions, we are indeed endangering the health and well-being of the American public,” Lorie Spragens, ASDSO’s Executive Director said.
“It is well known within the dam safety community that a series of dam failures in the 1970s and ‘80s collectively killed more than 500 people and caused billions of dollars in property and economic damages. It was clear at the highest levels of federal and state government that the way to reduce risk and improve
public safety was to vastly improve leadership and funding and increase the expertise in the scientific fields touching dam engineering. And we’ve done that,” Spragens went on to state. “We have reduced risks associated with dams in the past 40 plus years. But this must be a constant push to improve, as dams age, and populations grow below dams. We don’t want to go back to the ‘70s.” ASDSO says it wanted its members and colleagues who work in the US government to know how saddened it is by the situation they find themselves in, but also wanted them to know there is still a dam safety community supporting them – and its work and commitment won’t stop. ASDSO has opened a new job posting marketplace (
https://damsafety.org/careers) which is free and open to all who want to use it. It has also created an anonymous form where those directly or indirectly impacted can share thoughts, stories, and suggestions with ASDSO leadership. “These disruptions will hopefully not last,” Spragens said. “We encourage everyone to tell your representatives and senators how important these roles at the federal level are. And remind them that suspending funding for federal grants will make Americans less safe, secure and prosperous. Our voices need to be heard.”
US Army Corps gets to work Demonstrating the important work it does in relation to
dam safety, the Omaha District of the US Army Corps of Engineers recently performed the first of two periodic inspections at Branched Oak Dam in Nebraska. “We look for any issues that might affect the performance of the dam, especially during extreme conditions where the reservoir rises above the normal pool,” says dam safety engineer Matthew Borys. The periodic assessment is led by the Institute for
Water Resources’ Risk Management Centre, while the Omaha District is the technical lead. The inspection team includes geotechnical, structural and hydrologic engineers as well as an economist who analyses the consequences of a dam breach and the potential effects to downstream communities in the event of a flood. The team walked the entire length of the spillway, abutments and embankments looking for any deficiencies including cracking, active erosion or settlement, depressions where erosion could start, and unwanted vegetation. A structural engineer also inspected other features of the dam including the intake structure and outlet works conduit where they looked for deteriorating concrete. Following the inspection, a week-long potential
failure mode analysis was conducted to review inspection observations and existing data to brainstorm potential failure modes for the project.
38 | September 2025 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
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