The country’s stock of dams is increasingly decrepit: The dams in the National Inventory average 61 years old, and it would cost $157.5 billion to rehabilitate the 88,616 deficient non-federal dams alone, according to research from the Association of State Dam Safety Officials. The price tag to remediate just the most critical dams is estimated at $34.1 billion.
Rehabilitation becomes necessary as dams age, technical standards and techniques evolve and downstream populations and land use change. Many dam owners, especially private ones, find it difficult to finance upkeep, but deferring maintenance can lead to disastrous failures.
