Aging dams in northeastern US threatened by climate change

Erica Gies in NJToday: In August Hurricane Irene brought dramatic flooding to Vermont, dumping 11 inches of rain in 24 hours. Floodwaters washed away roads, homes, bridges, businesses, and the state’s emergency operations center, leaving a dozen mountain towns cut off from the outside world. The costly deluge did major harm from North Carolina to New England, making it the tenth weather disaster of 2011 to cost more than $1 billion. That’s a record.

Unfortunately, floods are becoming more common across the Northeast because climate change is creating greater fluctuations in watershed flows that U.S. infrastructure was not built to withstand. Add the fact that dams are aging and ill-maintained because federal and state budget cupboards are bare, and wherever you look, there’s the possibility for a perfect storm of flooding and costly infrastructure failure.

In Massachusetts, for example, emergency workers were forced to tear down the 200-year-old Forge Pond Dam in Freetown when rainstorms last year pushed the structure to its limit. If the dam had failed, two others downstream probably would have failed as well, said a public safety official.

Ultimately, taxpayers bear the costs of rebuilding after such “natural disasters.” But solutions won’t be easy or cheap. During the twentieth century, water managers planned for future needs based on past precipitation patterns. But with climate change, weather patterns are more unpredictable, and we haven’t yet learned to adapt.

The now-regular occurrence of “100-year” and “500-year” floods is putting increased pressure on dams not designed to withstand it. There are 87,000 dams in the United States, says the Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO). The vast majority are privately owned, and many no longer serve their planned function. About 10 percent have no known owner. ASDSO found that 10,127 dams nationwide pose a serious threat to human life if they fail, and of those, 1,333 were structurally deficient or unsafe....

Carbon Based has its very own failed dam, a bit of crumbling infrastructure entirely aligned with the news story above. Photo by Brian Thomas