More than 15,000 of the 90,000 dams listed in the national inventory are designated as having high hazard potential. If they break, the resulting catastrophe is likely to cost lives. If a dam fails catastrophically, huge amounts of sediment can be washed downstream, clouding the water and moving contaminants.

“Dams like that shouldn’t be failing.”

“They should be properly maintained and upgraded. Unfortunately, in many cases they’re not.”

–Mark Ogden, coauthor of an American Society of Civil Engineers 2017 Infrastructure Report Card

Source: Popular Science