Continued Innovation Needed to Fortify High-Risk Dams Across US: Civil Engineer

Water flows over the Feather River Fish Barrier dam as it diverts Chinook Salmon up a fish ladder to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Feather River Hatchery below the Lake Oroville dam during the California drought emergency in Oroville, Calif., on May 27, 2021. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Dams have represented feats of ingenuity symbolizing the human endeavor to harness the energy of the natural environment throughout history.

But aging infrastructure and unpredictable weather patterns challenge the innovation of even the most brilliant engineers.

Such was the case in 2017 with the Oroville Dam in California. Record-breaking rainfall damaged the emergency spillway of the dam, leading authorities to evacuate nearly 200,000 people who lived downstream along the Feather River.

Standing at 770 feet, the Oroville Dam is the tallest dam in the United States. Before the incident in 2017, it was regularly inspected.

“It was a shock to the dam safety industry,” Dina Hunt, the president of the U.S. Society on Dams (USSD), told The Epoch Times.

The dam safety industry considers these incidents through its “potential failure mode analysis,” in which engineers take into account all dam failure probabilities to help dam owners make better maintenance decisions, she said.

One of the reasons the Oroville Dam failure was a shock to the industry was because the dam had undergone multiple potential failure mode analyses in the past, Hunt said.

“The issues that developed at the Oroville spillways had been considered in past evaluations, but for a number of reasons the likelihood of these specific issues developing were considered highly unlikely,” she said. “Then, it happened.”

Even so, the Oroville incident could have been worse, Hunt said.

She pointed to dam failures in the past with tragic consequences that prompted a call for more regulation in the dam industry.

The St. Francis Dam Disaster

On March 12, 1928, the failure of the St. Francis Dam in Los Angeles unleashed a 70-foot wall of water down the San Francisquito Canyon into the Santa Clara River Valley.

The flood cleared an area of land that was 2 miles wide and 70 miles long, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

“The 5 1/2-hour rampage killed more than 450 people, left hundreds more homeless, destroyed 900 houses and many bridges and roads, and swept away 24,000 acres of farmland,” the department stated. “This disaster was one of the deadliest in California history, second only to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.”

The event led to the state Legislature establishing a state safety inspection agency to oversee and enforce more regulation based on how dams had been constructed in the past and what could be improved.

Dina Hunt, president of the U.S. Society on Dams. Courtesy of Dina Hunt

However, with over 90,000 dams of varying types in the country, dam regulation can get complicated, Hunt said.

Generally, dam regulation falls under the authority of the state where the dams are located, while multiple federal agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency provide oversight.

The Army Corps of Engineers maintains a National Inventory of Dams database showing 92,401 dams with an average age of 63 years.

Limited Budget for Maintenance

According to the Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO), many state programs’ limited authority, budget, and staff make it difficult to carry out strict enforcement.

“Although things have improved in the last 20 years, there is an ongoing, serious need in almost every state to pump additional state resources into these programs,” the ASDSO says on its website.

The Biden administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act earmarked $2 billion for dam improvement projects in 2022.

The ASDSO issued a report in 2023 estimating the cost of nonfederal dam rehabilitation at $157.5 billion, including $34.1 billion for the most critical dams. Those costs continue to rise as maintenance and repairs are delayed, the group said.

“Many dam owners, especially private dam owners, find it difficult to finance rehabilitation projects,” it said.

The ASDSO said it’s important to educate the public about dam safety.

“The ordinary citizen is unaware that many of the beautiful lakes on which they boat, ski, or fish are only there because of man-made dams,” the group said.

A view of the heavily damaged spillway at Lake Oroville in Oroville, Calif., on April 11, 2017. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Advocacy for Dam Removal

In addition to aging infrastructure and severe weather that can overwhelm dams, Hunt said the dam industry has been challenged by some environmental organizations who say that dams are destructive to the environment and detrimental to ecosystems.

Patagonia, an outdoor apparel and equipment company, has been campaigning since 1993 for the dismantling of certain dams. Most recently, the company has pushed for the removal of four dams along the Snake River in the Pacific Northwest.

“By removing dams, we can restore rivers, save species from extinction, honor treaty rights and build climate resiliency,” the company says on its website.

American Rivers, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization, has called for the removal of 30,000 dams to restore rivers to their former state.

“Free-flowing rivers promote healthy habitat for wildlife, reduce flood risk to communities, and support cultural traditions,” American Rivers says on its website. “Up to 85 percent of all dams in our country are unnecessary, harmful, and even dangerous.”

The organization is celebrating four dam removals along the Klamath River in Northern California—the largest dam removal project in U.S. history—which is expected to be finished by late August.

But it would be impractical to completely rid the world of dams, Hunt said.

“USSD’s vision is a world where dams and levees are safe and valued by the communities they serve,” she said. “In order for us to live in the world we live in today, we need to provide a reliable and safe supply of water as well as flood protection to the communities living downstream.”

Instead of removing dams, Hunt said it makes more sense to approach dam designs in new ways, including a risk-informed approach.

The key to the continued design construction, operation, and maintenance of these systems will depend on the next generation of civil engineers and their willingness to be curious about civil works infrastructure and how efforts in the field have contributed to the advancement of society, Hunt said.

“We depend on dams,” she said. “And we need good civil engineers with fresh thoughts and bright minds.”