Extreme weather raises dam safety concerns
- Dams a lower storm-related priority than other infrastructure
- Senate bill would renew dam safety program
- Failures at some dams could threaten lives
WASHINGTON — The severe weather that's walloped parts of the country in recent years has focused new attention on states' vulnerability to storm surges and inland flooding.
Billions in federal, state, local and private money is being spent to upgrade infrastructure, homes and businesses damaged by tropical storms, hurricanes and tornadoes.
Much less has been spent improving dams, even though they've also experienced severe stress.
Dam failures are relatively rare, but they do occur. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials counts 132 dam failures around the nation between 2005 and 2009.
Dams classified as high-hazard would threaten the lives of people downstream if they failed, are a particular concern.
Officials at the federal Bureau of Reclamation spend $75 million to $85 million each year on dam safety, mostly to rehabilitate the 474 dams and dikes it owns and operates in 17 western states, spokeswoman Lauren Meredith said in an email. Those dams include the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River and the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River.
"Funding from the dam safety program also goes toward outreach and participation within the broader federal, state and private dam safety community in the form of research, technology transfer and other information,'' Meredith said.
Likewise, the federally run Tennessee Valley Authority funds rehabilitation projects within its region.
"We can't get the federal government interested in dam rehabilitation,'' said Lori Spragens, executive director of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials.
Instead, dam rehabilitation is often financed by local user fees, municipal bonds or taxes. Dams built as reservoirs for drinking water can draw from ratepayers' fees to pay for repairs.
In New York, the Lake Carmel Dam in Putnam County has a surface crack along the length of its spillway, said Kent Town Supervisor Katherine Doherty.
"I don't think it's dangerous," Doherty said. "I just think we need to address it.''
The local park district supported by 2,700 area families will have to pay for the repairs, perhaps through a bond issue.
A multi-billion-dollar water resources bill recently approved by the Senate would reauthorize a nationwide dam safety inspection program that expired in September 2011, but would spend only $12.5 million a year.
Reactivation of the federal funding still requires action by the House. Two New York congressmen, Democratic Rep. Sean Maloney and Republican Rep. Chris Gibson, are cosponsoring legislation to reauthorize the dam safety inspection program. They hope to attach the proposal to a larger bill involving other water issues.
"My effort...is to make sure the federal government is a good partner to localities and ownership associations and whoever has dams that need to be inspected," Maloney said. "We live in a world now where we have these extreme weather events and you don't want to find out your dam is going to fail when you have a superstorm.''
The Senate bill would authorize a new federal loan program, the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, that would provide for loans of at least $5 million to rural communities with a maximum 25,000 people. It could conceivably be used for dam rehabilitation.
John Bianco, who oversees regional dam safety for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said engineers and government officials have better technology these days — including live radar — to manage dam safety during heavy rains.