Michigans Dam Failures, a Small Part of America’s Aging Infrastructure Problem

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https://youtu.be/pltqZfxwHdo

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

ASCE Infrastructure Report Card for America: D+

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The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Infrastructure Report Card is published every four years. The most recent Infrastructure Report Card was released in 2017. It gave America’s infrastructure a grade of D+.

The report card highlighted the urgent need for infrastructure improvement for aviation, bridges, dams, drinking water, schools, solid waste, transit, and wastewater.

Dams and levees received a D grade. Dams create reservoirs for water supply and protect local communities from floods. They also provide renewable energy. Levees reduce the risk from devastating flooding events. However, nearly 17% of America’s dams are considered high hazard potential; the dams failure would likely cause a loss of life and significant economic losses.

7 Superfund Sites in the US

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Hank Green of SciShow walks through seven Superfund Sites:

  1. Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York
  2. Reed-Kepler Park in west Chicago
  3. Hart Senate office building in Washington D.C.
  4. Blackburn and Union Privileges site in Walpole, Massachusetts
  5. Berkeley Pit in Montana
  6. Hudson River in New York
  7. CTS of Asheville in North Carolina

Superfund Sites are sites contaminated with hazardous substances that have been designated for clean-up by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA).

The complete list of Superfund Sites on the National Priorities List (NPL) Sites is available on the United States Environmental Protection Agency website.