Wisconsin dams are failing more frequently, a new report finds
Wisconsin is seeing more and more dam failures, a sign that the storms blowing through the state are becoming more intense.
Wisconsin recorded 34 dam failures between 2000 and 2023, the second-highest total for that period behind only South Carolina, according to the Wisconsin Policy Form. a report released on Thursday. More than 80% of the failures – 28 to be precise – occurred since early 2018, and 18 of those occurred since early 2020. None of the failures resulted in human deaths, the report found.
The state is home to more than 4,000 dams. Some are huge hydroelectric structures, while others are small earthen dams that create farm ponds. They are owned by a mix of corporations, individuals, government and tribal entities, and utilities.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ National Inventory of Dams lists 1,004 Wisconsin dams ranging in height from 6 feet (almost 2 meters) to the 92-foot-high (28 meters) Flambeau Dam on Dairyland Reservoir in Rusk County.
The inventory classifies more than 200 dams as having high risk potential, meaning failure would likely cause human deaths. Of the 34 failed dams in Wisconsin over the past 23 years, three had a high hazard potential, one had a significant hazard potential, meaning a failure could cause economic losses, environmental damage and other problems, and 18 had a low hazard potential, meaning that failure would lead to harm. ‘do not lead to loss of life and have minor economic and environmental impacts. The hazard potential of the remainder was undetermined.
According to the report, each state budget since 2009 has allocated at least $4 million for dam safety work. The funding has been sufficient to upgrade the state’s major dams, but “a changing climate — leading to more frequent and intense extreme rain events — could pose new and tougher tests to our dam infrastructure,” the report warns.
The Wisconsin Policy Forum compiled the report using data collected by the Association of State Dam Safety Officials.