Dam Failures

This week in the news, there was the story about a potential dam failure in North Carolina  Lake Tahoma dam failure   potential dam failure.

On May 31, my brother sent me a notice about "this day in history" which included https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-johnstown-flood-2     the reminder about the infamous Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood in 1889. It reminded he and I about the book we shared In The Shadow of the Dam. This is the story about a dam failure in Western Massachusetts..

Recently, Al Roker, of NBC news wrote a book about The Johnstown Flood, The Ruthless Tide,which is on my reading list.  

Dam  failures have significance in my life. We lived on the banks of the Millers River in Millers Falls, Massachusetts.  When I was a child, there were two dams of significance in Millers Falls:  one above the Millers Falls Paper Company The Millers Falls Paper Company images.  It was used for hydroelectric power, but by the time I could recall, hydroelectric power was only used if the community electric power was unavailable due to storm or other catastrophe. I was in high school when this dam failed.  I remember my father basically living at the paper company, and my mother sending food to his crew while they dealt with this situation.

The other dam was under the bridge at Route 63. It helped to divert water to the power  canal for the The Millers Falls Power Tool Company.  The company has disbanded, and the power canal has been filed in for safety reasons.  The history is confusing to me, but you can research the links.

Any way, dam failures are not uncommon, and there may be a need to re-assess the science of dams.  Not that any engineer is  at fault. But maybe dam engineering and construction can be reassessed. 

Engineering Responsibility

I recently read In the Shadow of the Dam http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7432-2357-7, about a reservoir dam failure in Williamsburg, Massachusetts in 1874.  It told of the loss of life, property, and economy for the communities downstream from the dam, and the lack of responsibility and accountability of those who commissioned and built the dam. 

I have been in a correspondence with an engineer, who told me some 40 years ago, when he went through college, ethics and morals were not addressed in engineering. I am not surprised.

When I went through social work classes almost 40 years ago, we did not address ethics, morality, or cultural diversity, which are all big issues in the profession now.

These are my thoughts about engineering: I hate that we are such a litigious society, but I suspect, unless engineers and architects are sued and have to face the consequences of their failures, monetarily and legally, things will change slowly, if not at all.  As in the verdict of the Williamsburg Dam, when the blame is spread too thin, no one of consequence suffers.  Instead, the poor, unsuspecting public suffers. 

The sad truth is that corporations who erect dams, levees, power plants, railroads, public utilities, water plants on and on, whether public or private, are looking to the bottom line: profitability instead of community service. And with profitability comes cost cutting, shoddy workmanship, and design change in the interest of cost cutting. 

This is a list of dam failures

http://www.damsafety.org/news/?p=412f29c8-3fd8-4529-b5c9-8d47364c1f3e

It is instructive in a lot of ways. The biggest way being that dam failures still occur. They should not.

Hmm, why are engineers and architects not held to more responsibility?