Dollars and Dams: Building Safety into California’s Future
The near-failure of Oroville Dam on February 7, 2017 was a major wake-up call regarding the risks posed by dams in California and nationwide. The January 5, 2023 spillway failure of the North Fork Dam on Pacheco Creek is an unfortunate sign that California has much...Two years after Midland dam failures, still no action on safety reforms
As another Lansing session draws to a close, dam safety reform bills have yet to get a hearing.
Lawmakers say the reforms remain a priority, but advocates fear the delays put more communities at risk.
Experts say the state’s flood control laws are too weak and dams are growing dangerously old.
The Coming California Megastorm
California, where earthquakes, droughts and wildfires have shaped life for generations, also faces the growing threat of another kind of calamity, one whose fury would be felt across the entire state.
This one will come from the sky.
Who’s at fault for Midland dam failures? Pretty much everyone, report says
The mid-Michigan dam failures in 2020 were “foreseeable and preventable,” if only pretty much anyone involved in the Edenville Dam’s century-long lifespan had recognized and acted upon its shoddy construction and the potential that extreme floodwaters would punch a hole through its embankment.
That’s one takeaway from a five-member independent forensic team tasked with investigating the physical and human causes of the May 2020 dam failures at Edenville and the downstream Sanford Dam near Midland, which flooded out mid-Michigan, causing more than $200 million in property damage and forcing more than 10,000 people to evacuate.