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Many people may not know it, but about 20% of the nation’s dams are in Oklahoma. There are more than 4,700 in all, including more than 2,000 identified as flood-control dams. “Nationwide, I think we are No.
2 (in total dams),” said Yohanes Sugeng, the Engineering and Planning Division chief at the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. Sugeng said when people consider their needs for flood insurance, something to think about is whether they live near a dam. Although flash flooding, the most common and damaging kind of flooding, isn’t typically associated with a dam, living downstream from a dam can be associated with higher risks.
Among other things, Sugeng said it’s important for people to know how close they might live or work to a dam and about how their property might be affected by policies that all dam operators have regarding things like when to open flood gates depending on conditions. He noted that high-hazard dams are most often identified as such because of the proximity of homes or businesses that would be affected downstream if flood gates must be opened. People are also reading.
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The dam can be in really good condition but still a high hazard dam,” he said. According to the OWRB dashboard, there are 426 dams in the state currently rated as high hazard, and 212 rated as significant hazard. It’s not terribly uncommon for a dam’s classification to be changed as a result of homebuilding or investments made in new businesses downstream.
According to OWRB records, in the past 15 years or so, at least 23 dams in Oklahoma have been reclassified as high hazard after previously being classified either as low hazard or significant hazard. “Not a lot of people know that we have that many dams, and most likely (that) we live somewhere near dams. That’s one of the goals for us is to do this public outreach,” Sugeng said.
Dams can serve a variety of purposes, such as impounding municipal water supplies and generating hydroelectric power. Some smaller ones may serve only to create ponds for aesthetic purposes in neighborhoods. Most in Oklahoma are earthen structures.
Many are small, but a number are quite substantial, including structures like dams at Lakes Eucha, Eufaula and Texoma. Most average about 50 years old. State dam safety programs are managed by the states.
However, the federal government provides resources to help manage dam safety. Federally owned dams, like Oklahoma’s Lake Arcadia dam, are managed by the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers. High-hazard dams must be inspected every year at a minimum. According to an OWRB spreadsheet, 40 dams in the state are currently rated in poor or unsatisfactory condition.
One of the biggest, the 60-year-old Lake Ellsworth dam near Lawton, has been targeted for nearly $26 million worth of rehabilitation work. Of its nearly $2 billion in federal pandemic relief funds, Oklahoma set aside $100 million for water and wastewater infrastructure projects, including $10 million specifically for dam rehabilitation. The Oklahoma Water Resources Board is responsible for allocating those funds to communities across the state.
“We do inspections, but for high-hazard and significant-hazard dams, we basically tell the dam owners to hire professional engineers to inspect those dams,” Sugeng said. “On the high-hazard potential dams, I think most owners are aware of the importance of operation maintenance.”.
