Public safety crisis: Budget cuts may cause US dams to fail

Across the nation, dams are deteriorating while the storms pounding against them grow stronger and more frequent. The result: A growing number of disasters and an unacceptable level of flood risk for downstream communities.

Lives, homes and livelihoods hang in the balance, even as dam safety oversight and funding are being eliminated in the current Congress.  

May 31 is National Dam Safety Awareness Day — a moment to remember the people who have died in dam failures and to urge action to ensure no more lives are lost in unnecessary and avoidable catastrophes. It should also be a wake-up call. The threat is not theoretical, it is reality. And the harsh reality is, it is getting worse and our elected leaders have yet to respond.  

There are more than half a million dams obstructing rivers and streams in all 50 states and in almost every community. Ownership and associated liability in the event of dam-breaks spans private owners, localities, states and the federal government, which controls some of the largest and most dangerous dams.

Dams are infrastructure, and infrastructure fails. When dams fail, a wall of water surges downstream, destroying everything in its path. In the U.S. alone, thousands have died from dam failures. Even low head dams — smaller dams that typically have water continuously flowing over the dam crest — can be deadly, having entrapped and drowned 1,400 people in their hydraulic churn over the years. 

Dam failures are not tragedies of the distant past. Nearly 80 percent of emergency incidents and dam failures have occurred in the last 20 years. In 2019, for example, the Spencer Dam in Nebraska failed during a winter storm and drowned a man. Just last year the Rapidan Dam in Minnesota failed during a flood, swallowing a riverside home. The dam was known to be in a state of disrepair, and the dam owner had been weighing the decision to repair or remove the structure.

Hurricane Helene, which dumped an unprecedented amount of rainfall onto the Southeast, pushed dams beyond their limit. Dozens of state-regulated dams failed or were severely damaged in record-breaking flooding. Many others were further degraded — leaving them compromised as the 2025 hurricane season begins.

The majority of our nation’s dams are beyond their design lifespan. With the average age across the nation surpassing six decades, it should be unsurprising that they were not built to withstand the storm and flood intensities that we are seeing now. Many are accidents just waiting to happen, especially as the funding and staff that maintain or upgrade these antiquated structures are being cut.

The U.S. has put far too little investment into fixing this underappreciated public safety crisis, leading the American Society of Civil Engineers to give our dams a grade of D+. And a failing grade may well be around the corner. 

In the last two years, Congress has made major cuts to dam safety programs at dam-owning agencies and massive cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency National Dam Safety Program funding. This program provides critical support to state dam safety offices and for dam owners voluntarily seeking to repair or remove dams with high hazard potential. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 provided an influx of funds, but more than half of those dedicated funds were subsequently cut in the 2024 and 2025 spending bills.  

Restoring and sustaining sufficient funding and staffing to the FEMA National Dam Safety Program is crucial to addressing the dam safety crisis. Lack of funding will leave communities, regardless of who they voted for, having to pay the price when dams break.

At the state level, dam safety offices need the staffing, funding and programmatic infrastructure to hold dam owners responsible for the safety of their dams. Loopholes that allow some dam owners — even those owning high-hazard dams — to avoid safety regulation, must be closed. Unsafe dams that are not serving a critical purpose should be removed, and funding should be made available to support those removals.  

It is currently estimated that it would cost $165 billion to rehabilitate all non-federal dams. The longer dams are allowed to deteriorate, the higher that price tag grows.

However, as the adage goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. More than half of dams on the landscape are obsolete, no longer serving the purpose they were built to provide. An investment to remove them instead of patching them up for another day may be a cost-efficient way of eliminating safety risks and expediently restoring water quality, wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities.  

Our nation’s outdated 20th Century dams are buckling under 21st century weather extremes. They are quickly becoming ticking time bombs without the budget to diffuse them. This is not just an infrastructure issue — it is a public safety emergency. And Congress is on the verge of failing its most basic responsibility: to protect the American people.  

Members of Congress need to put public safety first and approve dedicated funding for the regular upkeep, rehabilitation and removal of dams.  

Tom Kiernan is president and CEO of American Rivers.