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Monday, February 27th, 2017

America’s Aging Dams Are in Need of Repair

Author:     TROY GRIGGS, GREGOR AISCH and SARAH ALMUKHTAR
Source:     The New York Times
Publication Date:     FEB. 23, 2017
 Link: America’s Aging Dams Are in Need of Repair
Stephan:   We are about to spend even more money on defense than we already do, which is equal to the next seven national military budgets in order, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, United Kingdom, India, France, and Japan combined. At the same time we are allowing our infrastructure to deteriorate alarmingly. Here is a very good data based report on just the dam aspect of our national infrastructure. This is scary stuff; just look at what happened at Oroville, California, and that was just a spillway.

After two weeks that saw evacuations near Oroville, Calif., and flooding in Elko County, Nev., America’s dams are showing their age.

Nearly 2,000 state-regulated high-hazard dams in the United States were listed as being in need of repair in 2015, according to the Association of State Dam Safety Officials. A dam is considered “high hazard” based on the potential for the loss of life as a result of failure.

By 2020, 70 percent of the dams in the United States will be more than 50 years old, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

“It’s not like an expiration date for your milk, but the components that make up that dam do have a lifespan.” said Mark Ogden, a project manager with the Association of State Dam Safety Officials.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers keeps an inventory of 90,000 dams across the country, and more than 8,000 are classified as major dams by height […]

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1 Comment

  1. Mark R on Monday, February 27, 2017 at 9:50 am

    Scary & disgraceful. We are one of the most protected countries in terms of geography & the strongest military on the planet, yet we need more bombs?? Smells like the military industrial complex stacking the deck..and putting the people more at risk than ever.