U.S. dams score a “D”

Two politicians in the United States have introduced legislation in Congress to tighten the safety and security of the country’s dams. In 2005 the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) published a report that gave the overall condition of dams in the United States a score of “D” and identified 3,500 unsafe or deficient structures. The nation has a total of 78,000 dams.
Republic representative Randy Kuhl of New York and Jim Matheson, a Democrat representing Utah, introduced the National Dam Safety Act of 2005 to reauthorize the National Dam Safety Program as a national program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Following a tragic dam collapse in Hawaii in March and a dam failure in Missouri in December, the legislation is being hailed as timely and necessary by the ASCE.