When the Levee Breaks…

In yet another report on the sad state of America’s infrastructure, apparently our dams are in serious need of upgrade and repair. My initial reaction was, of course, that this is the result of Republican intransigence against any spending, even if it is an investment. And it is true that for all their coziness with business, Republicans seem to have a blind spot when it comes to understanding the importance of infrastructure investment. As the article points out, in South Carolina last year over 20 dams failed and the flooding resulted in 17 deaths and over $10 billion in property damage. In 2006, the Koloko dam in Hawaii failed, drowning seven. But the reality is there is not much the federal or even state governments can do to help shore up these failing dams. That is because, incredibly, the majority of dams in the US are privately owned.  When I think about dams in the US, I think of the great government projects like the Tennessee Valley Authority and public/private partnerships like the Hoover Dam.  But the reality is that well over 50% of the dams in the United States are privately owned. I’m not sure quite why this is – perhaps it is a legacy of colonial times when unnavigable streams and rivers on private land were considered just that  – private property. So the dams built on those rivers and streams are also private.  Now you might think that all these privately owned dams are run by hydroelectric utilities or other companies with competence in managing the dams. But, again, incredibly, this is not necessarily true. As an example, the Goshen dam in Virginia is actually owned by the Boy Scouts of America. Now, I know the Boy Scouts are a talented bunch, but I really am not sure I’d be relying on them for managing a dam. And Federal and State monitoring of the condition of many of these smaller, private dams is spotty at best – some states had just one inspector for over 1,000 dams. Oh, and back to the pie chart from FEMA showing the breakdown of dam ownership in the Untied States:

Nearly 12% of dams in the country are of undetermined ownership. Many of these are obsolete or abandoned dams meaning that the owners have given up on them entirely. Just hope you don’t live downstream from one of those.