'High hazard' dams unregulated and in need of repairs

Eric Hand, Todd Frankel and Jaimi Dowdell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch examined the state of dams in Missouri and Illinois, following the failure of a dam in southeastern Missouri. They found that hundereds of dams in Missouri and Illinois lack plans for handling emergencies, are regulated by cash-strapped state offices that make intermittent inspections and depend on the willingness of private owners to make repairs, some of which are needed badly. "Of the state's 641 dams labeled "high hazard" — meaning a potential loss of life after a failure — more than half are not regulated. " (Editor's Note: The National Inventory of Dams, one of the sources used for this story, is available to journalists from IRE and NICAR.)