Many of Vermont’s dams — with a median age of 77 — threaten the people, wildlife and infrastructure that lay downstream. A new report from the state auditor’s office suggests that officials are neglecting the potential risks.
Released Monday, the report highlights 10 dams in poor condition, calling out delayed and insufficient inspections mishandled under the Department of Environmental Conservation’s dam safety program. The auditor’s office also notes policy differences and a lack of communication between state agencies as issues plaguing Vermont’s dam safety measures.
“When Vermonters think about public safety, dams probably don’t come to mind, and I suspect that won’t change unless one fails, causing significant property damage, or in a worst case, loss of lives,” State Auditor Doug Hoffer said in a press release. “It’s essential that state government protect people from the risks they pose.”
Nationwide, America’s dams desperately need an update. Two failing dams in Michigan led 10,000 people to evacuate their homes in 2020. A 2016 report found that it would take $60 billion to properly repair the country’s dams.
Last year, the state finished deconstructing the more than 200-year-old Dunklee Pond Dam in Rutland. Two years prior, a storm nearly destroyed the dam, threatening 28 homes and a culvert downstream.
Though disaster was avoided at Dunklee Pond, the auditor’s report suggests that with Vermont’s dam safety protocols left as is, it’s only a matter of time before a dam fails.
Take the Institute Pond Dam in Lyndon, labeled “poor condition” after a 2002 inspection — meaning deficiencies could be observed under normal conditions. Today, the dam is still in poor condition. And if the dam’s disrepair is not enough to spur renovation, consider its risk level: the Institute Pond Dam is classified as “high hazard potential,” meaning that if the structure fails, loss of life is “probable.”
In some instances, dam owners have not been notified that their dams are on the verge of collapse.
Communication falters between the dam safety program and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, which operates some state-owned dams, according to the auditor’s office. Fish and Wildlife never received inspection reports outlining the poor condition of two dams it controls. If left unchanged, current policies are “placing property, the environment, and human lives at risk and potentially exposing the State to lawsuits should the dam fail,” the report said.
Yet change might be coming soon. This summer, dam safety regulators will gain new enforcement power following the 2018 passage of Act 161, which created a two-stage rule-making process, Chief Dam Safety Engineer Ben Green told VTDigger.
If the state deems a dam in poor condition, “we’ll be able to require (dam owners) to take action, as opposed to in the past, we only really recommended that they take action,” Green said.
“We did have pretty limited authority in the past,” he said. “The new authorities will kind of bring us up to speed with federal guidelines and certainly closer to the authorities other states have.”
