By Elizabeth Gribkoff/VTDigger
The Waterbury Reservoir, an 850-acre body of water shaped like an upside down T west of Route 100, is one of Vermont’s most beloved spots for boating, fishing and family swimming.
But the 81-year-old dam, which could put more than 10,000 people and 1,200 buildings at risk if it failed, is among those highlighted by a recent Associated Press investigation as being in poor condition in Vermont. And until last year, state environmental regulators had limited authority to require dam owners to make needed repairs.
The AP analysis looked at dams around the country that are considered a “high hazard” — meaning they pose a great risk to human safety or property because of their location — and are in either poor or unsatisfactory condition.
Benjamin Green, section chief of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation’s Dam Safety division, provided an updated list of 11 high hazard dams that are either in poor condition or have “significant operational deficiencies” to VTDigger.
He noted that the list only includes dams regulated by the DEC, which oversees 415 of the dams, as well as the Wolcott Dam, which is under Public Utility Commission jurisdiction. The rest of the state’s 1,087 dams are either regulated by the Public Utility Commission or the federal government and 546 are prive and not regulated by either state or federal authorities.
Green and his predecessor have tallied at least 66 dam failures since the 1850s. While none have killed anyone, the East Pittsford dam collapse of 1947 devastated parts of Rutland, damaging 160 homes.
Earlier this fall, the dam safety division received a grant from FEMA’s High Hazard Potential Dam program to assess risk levels for 10 dams, positioning Vermont to receive federal funding for repairs down the line.
The only Vermont high -hazard potential dam not included in that assessment is the Waterbury Dam, which received $40 million last year for spillway repair. The Army Corps of Engineers will do a risk assessment to make sure the dam has no other major issues, said Green, which means the spillway replacement is likely years off. The state does weekly safety inspections of the Waterbury Dam.
“It’s certainly a high hazard dam,” he said. “These are older estimates but in the event that dam were to fail under storm loading, you could be looking at 10,000 people impacted.”
One small municipal utility — Hardwick Electric Department — owns two problem dams: the East Long Pond dam in Woodbury and the Wolcott Dam.
Last year, the state Public Utility Commission opened an investigation to look into whether the Wolcott Dam’s sluice gate, which has not worked since at least 2012, poses an “undue safety risk.” Hearing officer Micah Howe required the utility to issue a plan to replace the sluice gate by Nov. 22.
Michael Sullivan, general manager of Hardwick Electric, did not return a voicemail request for comment Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 14.
The American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2019 Vermont Infrastructure Report gave Vermont a C for dams, saying that the staffing and funding for DEC’s dam safety program was “inadequate.” They also recommend that the PUC, which regulates 101 dams in Vermont, should hire a dam safety engineer.
“With many dams in poor condition and the recent increase in larger and more intense floods, the risks of dam failure are increasing,” states the report. “Many experts feel that Vermont has been lucky to not have had a recent dam failure leading to loss of life and infrastructure.”
Green agreed that the state does have a number of older dams not built to current specifications — or to handle increased storms linked to climate change.
The ASCE also said that the state does not have the enforcement ability to require dam owners to make repairs beyond starting a “cumbersome” unsafe dam proceeding.
Only the owners of high-hazard dams are required to do annual inspections and develop emergency action plans in the event of a failure. ASCE states that owners of significant hazard dams should also be required to develop emergency plans like some other New England states. And they note that the number of high hazard dams in the state is “likely underestimated” due to downstream development since dams had last been classified.
Much of that will change with the passage of last year’s dam safety law, Act 161, which granted DEC’s dam safety program rule-making authority for the first time. The division put out draft rules last month to set inspection schedules, reclassify dams and mandate repairs. The new regulations won’t go into effect until at least 2022.
“We couldn’t require a lot” previously, said Green. “We had the authority to do inspections but … there wasn’t a lot we could do there to require you to follow up on the inspections to do the improvements.”
The ASCE also recommended that the DEC division double their staff of two engineers to perform additional inspections and other safety measures. Green said his division had not grown after Act 161 was passed.
