A two-year AP investigation identified at least 1,688 dams in 44 states and Puerto Rico that were in poor condition and categorized as high hazard because of the likelihood that people could die if they failed.
The U.S. has tens of thousands of dams, many of them decades old and looming over neighborhoods, businesses and schools. Data showing what kind of shape those dams are in and what danger they might pose has for years been sealed off from public view by the federal agency that oversees the nation’s only comprehensive dam database. This inconvenient fact did not deter a group of persistent AP journalists.
Over a period of more than two years, AP reporters and data team journalists used public records filings to access essential information about the condition of the nation’s dams. The relevant data came to light only after multiple rounds of record requests in all 50 states, an effort led by data journalist Michelle Minkoff and Northern New England correspondent Michael Casey. The data analysis, aided by Justin Myers, Larry Fenn and Andrew Milligan, revealed at least 1,688 dams across the U.S. in poor or unsatisfactory condition and considered high hazard because people would likely die if they failed.
The result, “Dams — Legacy of Neglect,” was a masterpiece of multi-format data journalism and collaboration with AP’s customers. The reporting and data analysis produced a trove of distinctive data and documents that could be localized easily, and many AP customers took advantage of that to produce their own staff-reported packages of stories, graphics, charts and photos. Among them were the (Albany, N.Y.) Times Union, the NBC affiliate in Sacramento, California, and local newspaper chains in Connecticut and Michigan.
The importance of the topic, the project’s visual appeal and the richness of the state-by-state data sets led to incredible play: The main story, anchored by state government team reporter David Lieb, had nearly 107,000 page views on AP News and some 450 digital downloads among AP customers. It was the third most viewed story on the day it moved and made the front pages of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Denver Post. AP reporters produced sidebars for 25 states — stories that were used on at least 470 of our customers’ digital sites. Many of the state stories ran on front pages, including with The Columbus Dispatch, the Hartford Courant, The Charlotte Observer, The (Raleigh) News & Observer and The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger. In all, the national story, AP state sidebars and localizations won play on at least 80 front pages. Newspapers elsewhere saw fit to editorialize on the topic, urging inspection standards and calling for more funding.
The Spencer Dam near Spencer, Neb., in November 2013, left, when it was holding back the Niobrara River, and again in March 2019, after the dam failed during a flood. State inspectors had given the dam a “fair” rating less than a year earlier. Until it failed, it looked little different from thousands of others across the U.S., and that could portend a problem.
Nebraska Dept. of Natural Resources via AP
Hunter Croan uses a makeshift ramp to move his boat to the water, Sept. 30, 2019, in Lake Dunlap, Texas. Croan is one of many homeowners who were left high and dry, their lakeside docks now dry as the Guadalupe River retreated to its natural bed after the the center spill gate of the lake's 91-year-old dam failed.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
John Moryl of the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority looks over the spill gates on Lake McQueeney in Lake McQueeney, Texas, Oct. 2, 2019. Amid concerns that spillway gates could fail, a judge has issued a 12-month temporary injunction preventing the draining of the lakes along the Guadalupe River as a result of an agreement between suing property owners and the river authority.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
Water spurts through a wood section of a spill gate on Lake McQueeney in Lake McQueeney, Texas, Oct. 2, 2019. A judge has issued a temporary injunction preventing the draining of the lakes along the Guadalupe River as a result of an agreement between suing property owners and the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
Tess Coody-Anders, a university executive and homeowner near Lake McQueeney, stands near a sign showing the lake is closed in Lake McQueeney, Texas, Sept. 30, 2019. The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority made plans to drain the chain of four lakes because of concerns that dam spillway gates could fail, but after property owners sued, the authority agreed to a temporary injunction delaying the plan for a year. That could allow time to find funding for the estimated $90 million to $210 million to repair the dams.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
Reservoir No. 1, a 180 million-gallon water supply that has been out of service much of the past few decades, sits against the backdrop of the Atlanta skyline, Oct. 15, 2019. The city made repairs and brought it back online in 2017, only to shut it down again after water leaks were noticed near businesses located beneath the dam. If the dam failed catastrophically, the water could inundate more than 1,000 single-family homes, dozens of businesses, a railroad and a portion of Interstate 75, according to an emergency action plan.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Joel Iverson, chief operating officer of Monday Night Brewing, poses, Oct. 15, 2019, in the brewery that sits beside Atlanta’s Reservoir No. 1, a 180 million-gallon water supply that has been out of service much of the past few decades. Iverson has previously noticed water trickling out of the hillside of the dam near the brewery he co-founded. “If that one goes, it’s going to wash away us and a lot of beer,” said Iverson.
AP Photo / David Goldman
On Oct. 15, 2019, pipes stretch down the hillside of Atlanta’s Reservoir No. 1, a 180 million gallon water supply that has been out of service much of the past few decades., in Atlanta. A breech of the dam could be catastrophic for homes and business that lie below the reservoir.
AP Photo / David Goldman
A student walks on a bridge over the lake at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio, Nov. 4, 2019. The dam that holds the lake from the steep grassy slope below exists largely in obscurity, but the dam is among more than 100 in Ohio that are classified as high hazard because lives and property would be threatened if the dam overflows.
AP Photo / Tony Dejak
Bruce Fehring and his wife Cyndee, center, lead a procession toward Kahili Quarry Beach during a memorial service on May 21, 2006 to honor those killed when the Kaloko Dam failed in Kilauea, on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. An earthen wall of the Kaloko Reservoir collapsed during heavy rains and sent a wave of water and mud rushing down a hillside. Seven people were killed on Fehring’s property, including his daughter, son-in-law and grandson.
Jamm Aquino / Honolulu Star-Bulletin via AP
Damage shown March 14, 2006 after a dam burst near Kilauea, on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. An earthen wall of the Kaloko Reservoir collapsed during heavy rains and sent a wave of water and mud rushing down a hillside. Seven people were killed on Bruce Fehring’s property, including his daughter, son-in-law and grandson.
AP Photo / Casey Riemer
The window-like arches on the outside of the towering Mountain Dell Dam, 5 miles east of Salt Lake City, provide an artistic facade that fits with the natural beauty of the Utah mountain canyon where the century-old structure sits. The dam is listed in poor condition because of deteriorating concrete that allows seepage from the reservoir, said a Utah assistant state engineer.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
Workmen float near the base of the Mountain Dell Dam, 5 miles east of Salt Lake City, Nov. 7, 2019. The dam is listed in poor condition because of deteriorating concrete that allows seepage from the reservoir, said a Utah assistant state engineer.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
Alan Miller, editor of The Columbus Dispatch, praised the AP-member partnership in a letter to the newspaper’s readers: “The beauty of the collaboration that went into this story is that none of those newsrooms had to spend time analyzing data and reporting the entire story. It is another example of leveraging our assets to serve you best.” While the data was essential to the project, that alone didn't sell it. AP visual journalists across the country, coordinated by video journalist Allen Breed, contributed stunning photos and videos, some of it shot by drone and some obtained from public agencies. Significant visual contributions came from John Bazemore, Rick Bowmer, Eric Gay, David Goldman, Cody Jackson, Charlie Krupa, Brady McCombs and Angie Wang.
At the same time, graphic artist Phil Holm worked with location intelligence company Esri to produce an interactive map giving readers access to state-level details about each of the dams in the core data set. All of this was drawn together by Samantha Shotzbarger and Alyssa Goodman in a compelling AP News presentation using the new feature template, and promoted through a lively, multiday social plan by Alina Hartounian. East desk editor Jeff McMillan and former investigations editor Rick Pienciak made important contributions to the project, as did top stories editor Mary Sedor. The result of this all-formats team effort was a factually persuasive, visually engaging illustration of how a critical piece of the nation’s infrastructure has fallen into neglect at a time when climate change-induced storms present a rising peril for the communities downstream.
For dogged public records work, complex data analysis and rich storytelling in all formats, Minkoff, Casey, Lieb and Breed earn this week’s Best of the States award.