Resources for covering dam inspections and dam
deterioration
(Updated Dec. 14, 2005)
Examples of recent stories you can do in your area
The Associated Press reports that the Massachusetts Senate Post Audit and
Oversight Committee "found a lack of emergency plans at the vast majority of
so-called 'high hazard' dams — dams that could cause significant property
damage or death if they fail."
Karen Blakeman of The Honolulu Advertiser used IRE/NICAR's National Inventory of Dams data and federal documents and found that state safety inspections of dams across Hawai'i are woefully behind schedule and the threats dams pose to people have been underassessed. Dams in agricultural areas with little population originally were assessed as "low hazard", but some of those dams now have human populations below them and should be reclassified — including a Kaua'i dam that failed Tuesday. "Safety experts also say that dam owners have nowhere to turn when they don't have money to repair or maintain dangerous dams, and emergency action plans for many dams, including the Kaloko and Morita dams on Kaua'i, are nonexistent." Federal records on dams in Hawai'i show very few have emergency action plans. According to the National Inventory of Dams, a listing of dams across the country maintained by the U.S. Corps of Engineers since the late 1980s, no state safety inspections were conducted on Morita or Kaloko reservoirs through 2002, the last time Hawai'i information was updated.
IRE and NICAR offer the National Inventory of Dams to journalists.
Greg Bruno and Jessica Gardner of The Times Herald-Record reviewed documents to show that inspection reports designed to prevent catastrophic failings at two New York City-owned dams in the Catskills were repeatedly fabricated, even as water officials publicly proclaimed the structures' safety. "Since September 2002, about 70 percent of the city's weekly inspections for the Neversink Dam in Sullivan County and the Merriman Dam on the Rondout Reservoir in Ulster County have been photocopies of previous reports. Not only are the inspector's observations unchanged from week to week — citing evidence like cracks, seepage and other structural woes — but the handwriting on each questionable form is identical. The photocopies suggest that observations made during weekly dam visits were put on forms before the inspections were conducted — if they were conducted at all."
Following the failure of a dam in southeastern Missouri, Eric Hand, Todd Frankel and Jaimi Dowdell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch examined the state of dams in Missouri and Illinois. They found that of Missouri's "641 dams labeled 'high hazard' — meaning a potential loss of life after a failure — more than half are not regulated." Additionally, the story reports that many dam owners who are supposed to file emergency action plans to guide the response if a dam should fail, have not filed such plans. The National Inventory of Dams was one source they used in reporting the story.
Ryan McNeill of The Oklahoman used federal dam data to show Oklahoma "has 165 dams listed as high-hazard, which means failure could cause death to people living nearby." McNeill did the story after "officials in Massachusetts spent the week trying to save a town threatened by a failing wooden dam. If the dam in Taunton breaks, officials fear it would send a 6-foot wall of water through downtown — a scenario state officials said also is possible in Oklahoma."
Data
The IRE and NICAR Database Library can provide the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers' National Inventory of Dams, from 1993-2002, with information
on dam inspection, ownership and age. Hawaii has 123 dams recorded in the database. A few are more than 100 years
old, and quite a number of dams that could cause death and serious damage have no emergency action plans in place. The age and lack of planning are not unique to Hawaii. The agency often classifies dams as "high hazard," meaning that if a dam fails, people are threatened downstream because of residential or commercial development. It also indicates whether the dam owner has an emergency action plan, in case disaster does occur. The data can trace the recent history of a dam and generate a starting point for a story that can impact public safety.
To order the data, call the Database Library at 573-882-1982 or download an order form.
Stories
Story No. 21309
Sacramento Bee reporters look at the vulnerability of local levees which keep the city from being flooded. The report shows levees in vast disrepair, while flood protection funding is being cut back by state lawmakers. The levees are in desparate need of repair and need to be updated. Many are concerned that there will be a massive flood much like the one in 1997, which killed six people and forced the evacuation of 120,000.
Story No. 22119
The authors found that 30,000 homes in San Joaquin County, CA were built in areas prone to flooding. Furthermore, the levees protecting the homes are unstable and insufficient.
Story No. 18455
A Time investigation finds that dams built in the 20th century have been responsible for some of the worst environmental tragedies in history. The ongoing devastation of most of the West Coast salmon fisheries south of Canada, the gradual disappearance of coastal Louisiana, and the salting out of millions of hectares through irrigation illustrate only some of the deadly effects. "In ways direct and indirect, playing God with water has had a tendency to bite us back," the magazine reports. The story reveals that even though some states' economies are hopelessly dependent on the manipulation of water, governments have started removing the dams. (2000)
Story No. 18328
Outside reports on the growing sentiments beyond environmental circles for decommissioning dams. While dams provide clean power and stimulate the economy with recreation, they also can have far reaching environmental impact. In Lewiston, Idaho it's costing more money to barge endangered fish down to the sea each year than electricity generated. Some big dams may have outlived their usefulness, the article suggests. (1999)
Story No. 18221
More than 100,000 dams regulate American rivers and creeks, Atlantic Monthly reports. But the progress which dams epitomized has been called into question by experts. Making rivers navigable for barges costs taxpayers millions in subsidies, which often benefits the largest companies the most. Lobbyists have kept these subsidies high. Damage is also done by flooding that occurs as a result of dams.(1995)
Story No. 18188
In These Times reports on big dams across the world and environmental issues concerned with them. The article gives a brief history of dam activism. (1997)
Story No. 16183
After a violent storm exposed potentially life-threatening flaws in the world's biggest dam complex in Canada's Far North, this two-year investigation in the Montreal Gazette reveals the dam's Quebec-based owner concealed the damage when spending $100 million to quietly repair it. Neglect of the dam, which supplies up to 25 percent of New York and New England's electricity, resulted in severe losses from the 1998 storm. (1999)
Story No. 14250
By national standads, 1,228 dams in Missouri should have Emergency Action Plans to help with the evacuation of people living downstream if the dam should fail. According to the state's own records, only 33 do. When KOMU-Columbia, Mo. tried to verify that at least those 33 actually did have the plans on file, only three were found. (1997)
Story No. 13232
When the Chinese government completes construction on its Three Gorges Dam, not only will it have erected the world's largest dam but it will have destroyed countless towns and villages, forced millions of people to relocate, submerged hundreds of historic temples, and eliminated several endangered species. Spin magazine investigates the problems involved in building the dam on a fault line along the Yangtze River where the dam is eventually predicted to burst. (1996)
Story No. 12918
Dateline conducted a four-month computer-assisted investigation of the nation's aging and failing dams. The report exposed the fact that thousands of dams are precariously close to collapse and that nearly half the people that died in the 1994 Georgia floods were found downstream from broken dams.
(1995)
Story No. 12885
In July 1977 heavy storms broke open the Laurel Run Dam, killing 39 people. A 10-year legal battle, which ended with out-of-court settlements for the victim's families, hid the reasons for the dam failure. By unsealing those records and obtaining hundreds of others, The Tribune-Democrat discovered that a long history of poor maintenance and unheeded warnings preceded the dam break. (1995)
Story No. 10416
American Prospect describes how spending to rebuild after disasters has exactly the same economic effect as economic stimulus packages meant to jump-start the economy; shows how politicians who decried the latter as pork barrel politics and unworkable later took credit when the former had exactly the same results that they denied would follow; focuses on the L.A. earthquake in 1994 but mentions other disasters as well. (1994)
Story No. 8792
San Francisco Daily Journal reports on the efforts of an ad hoc group organizing to save the viability of a river in the Sierra Madre mountains of California from mine waste runoff, water and fish depletion from damming of the river; a utility owns the land with the mine and is responsible for the dams, which are diverting the river and killing the fish. (1992)
Story No. 7709
New Times (Phoenix, Ariz.) gives overview of the ecological debate over Glen Canyon Dam and its effects on the Grand Canyon, Arizona and Utah. (1990)
Story No. 6684
Tuscon (Ariz.) Citizen reports on the possibility of Coolidge Dam failing. (1989)
Story No. 6007
The Deseret News (Salt Lake City) reveals that more than half the dams above populated areas in Utah are unsafe; finds problems with dams are often ignored for years and little money is available to fix the dams. (1988)
Story No. 5892
Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.) discloses theWillow Creek Dam is leaking and experiencing concrete decay; details how the Army Corps of Engineers used a new money-saving roller-compacted concrete instead of poured concrete to build the dam. (1988-89)
Story No. 4635
This Pulitzer Prize-winning series from the Los Angeles Times examines inherent failures in the nation's dams. (1977)
Story No. 3258
KTVI-St. Louis examines the Harry S Truman Dam in the Missouri Ozarks, which has mechanical failures, has killed tons of fish and has posed a threat to a nearby town.
(1982)
Story No. 5892
Register-Guard in Eugene, Ore., discloses the Willow Creek Dam is leaking and experiencing concrete decay; details how the Army Corps of Engineers used a new money-saving roller-compacted concrete instead of poured concrete to build the dam. (1988-89)
Tipsheets
Tipsheet 2424
Lee Davidson of the Deseret Morning News breaks this tipsheet into two sections: bridges and dams. For each part, he first suggests possible issues to investigate, and then makes some suggestions on how to proceed. For example, one of his suggestions for dams is an investigation of whether or not local dams have emergency action plans in place. The suggestions on how to proceed include various helpful websites, as well as tips on data analysis.
Tipsheet 2464
This tipsheet is a great guide to investigating local highways and bridges. The authors offer some ideas to start the investigation - like reading through daily construction logs and going to board meetings. The second half of the tipsheet is devoted to investigating bridges. The authors give advice about what phrases to look for and which documents and databases are especially helpful.
Tipsheet 2399
This tipsheet is a very comprehensive guide to doing an investigation about local bridges. It covers what information to look for in the data as well as different stories that will all come from the same database. For example, Mark Greenblatt suggests using the data for the "widespread story", the "scour story" and the "breaking news story". For each suggestion, Greenblatt explains the problem and how to approach it as a reporter. Finally, the tipsheet ends with "Seven steps to a memorable news story."
Tipsheet 2235
Gilbert M. Gaul's tipsheet outlines approaches to analyzing Federal Emergency Management Administration records to show "how the breathless coverage of storms greases the skids for disaster declarations." Tips include tracking how, where and to whom FEMA dollars are allocated following a disaster, whether National Flood Insurance Program premiums are covering expenses, and who are receiving Small Business Administration loans following a disaster.
Tipsheet 2284
The four hurricanes that battered Florida in 2004 made for one of the most remarkable, memorable, and costly hurricane seasons in history. John Maines of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has suggestions and resources for reporters covering emergency situations, from the Federal Emergency Managment Agency, to private companies who provide images of destruction for free.
Tipsheet 186
"Bibliography of Flood Sources" details the history of and sources used for a story on the failure of the National Flood Insurance Program and the Federal Emergency Management Agency; includes phone numbers for sources in Congress and in FEMA, as well as many non-governmental sources. (1994)
Tipsheet 1296
Dawn Fallik of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch provides a list of ten basic stories that can be done relatively easily for those new to computer-assisted reporting.
Tipsheet 1537
Jennifer LaFleur of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch offers tips for including good data and Web sites.
More tipsheets can be found in the tipsheet
database.
Internet Resources
Hawaii Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers
World Commission on Dams
Shapefiles and GIS data for Hawaii dams
Association of State Dam Safety Officials
Hawaii Dam Safety Program
Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources
IRE Publications
Uplink article
This article describes a Dateline NBC report that revealed the danger of decaying dams. (March 1996)
Uplink and The IRE Journal
IRE members can search
the indexes of The IRE Journal and Uplink.
Back issues of The IRE Journal and Uplink may be purchased
for $10 each. There is an additional $10 user fee for nonmembers. Check
with the Resource Center at 573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org
for availability.
To order stories or tipsheets from the IRE Resource Center, send e-mail to rescntr@ire.org or call us at 573-882-3364.
| For more
information, contact: |
Jeff Porter
Database Library Director
IRE and NICAR
E-mail: jeff@ire.org
Voice: 573-882-1982
Fax: 573-882-5431 |
Beth Kopine
Research Director
IRE Resource Center
E-mail: beth@ire.org
Voice: 573-882-6668
Fax: 573-884-8151 |
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