Is It Infrastructure Week Yet?

The Associated Press has conducted a two-year investigation on the crumbling state of old dams in the U.S., and concluded that many thousands of people living in their vicinity are in danger of life-endangering floods collapsing the dams. With climate change causing catastrophic floods across the U.S., the danger is imminent:

"A review of federal data and reports obtained under state open records laws identified 1,688 high-hazard dams rated in poor or unsatisfactory condition as of last year in 44 states and Puerto Rico. The actual number is almost certainly higher: Some states declined to provide condition ratings for their dams, claiming exemptions to public record requests. Others simply haven’t rated all their dams due to lack of funding, staffing or authority to do so." (our emphasis)

The report indicates that the nation's dams are, on average, over 50 years old and most are privately owned by power companies, agricultural concerns, etc. As with most major infrastructure like bridges and tunnels, the public's awareness arises only after a catastrophic event:

“Most people have no clue about the vulnerabilities when they live downstream from these private dams,” said Craig Fugate, a former administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “When they fail, they don’t fail with warning. They just fail, and suddenly you can find yourself in a situation where you have a wall of water and debris racing toward your house with very little time, if any, to get out.” (our emphasis)

Dams are just one element of U.S. infrastructure that has suffered from deferred maintenance or repair. Experts estimate that to upgrade and repair the roughly 90,000 dams in the U.S. would require $70 billion, a sum that the dams' private owners want to avoid paying. So instead, as one dam after another fails, the people in direct danger of the dam near them wait and worry.

(photo: The Oroville, CA earthen dam breaks in February 2017)