At least 37 people have died in Kentucky at the site of a low-head dam. But the true number is unknown because there are no federal or state agencies responsible for maintaining an inventory of low-head dams, repairing them or keeping track of deaths.
CYNTHIANA, Ky. ― Beth Collins suggested they go to the dam that sunny day in 2011.
In August, a man drowned in Scott County while rafting with his 17-year-old son near the Elkhorn Creek low-head dam. It was the second drowning death there in 15 months.1,400 people have died nationwideBut the true number is unknown because there are no federal or state agencies responsible for maintaining an inventory of low-head dams, repairing them or keeping track of the people who die.
“It’s like giant arms reaching out and grabbing hold of you and pulling you towards the dam,” said Dean Peak of Harrison County. “[The water] hits you across this dam, jerks you back up and then just keeps doing that over and over,” said Craft, who has responded to every low-head dam drowning in her county for the past 20 years. “That will rip your clothes off of you. Rip your skin off. It breaks your bones.”
In one case, the Parkin family in Utah successfully sued the state, the county and the company that owned the dam after Warren Brent Parkin drowned at the Brighton and North Point Irrigation low-head dam. Steve Maggard, a Lexington-based civil engineer with Summit Engineering, Inc., had worked on low-head dams in West Virginia. When he learned about Cynthiana’s dams and drownings, he approached the mayor with an idea: Summit Engineering could install rock ramps on the dams to make them safer. Kentucky to get $25M to plug old oil and gas wells. Here's what it means for jobs, climate
The 2023 Water Resources Development Act would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to establish a low-head dam inventory. That would finally provide accurate data about where low-head dams are, but the bill still does not assign responsibility of the dams to any government agency. Indiana moves to inventory, address low-head dam dangers
When each state database is complete, they are handed over to state legislators who decide what to do next. “I know you live there,” Craft tells the students. “I know your parents take you down there. And I know you think, ‘Oh, my parents live there, they did it, too.’ But it just takes just once.”
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