Maine's Dams: Hazard Alert

Recent stories

Dam safety program behind schedule, while inspector has second job as rugby coach

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State dam inspector Tony Fletcher coaching the Colby College mens' and womens' rugby teams on Wednesday, Oct. 12 in Waterville.

Around 3:50 on the afternoon of Wednesday, Oct 12, a state-owned silver GMC Sierra pickup pulled into the parking lot at the Colby College rugby field. A man in a blue windbreaker got out of the truck, took a cardboard box of equipment from the cab and headed down to the field, where members of the college’s men’s and women’s teams

had gathered for their regular late afternoon practice. The man was their coach. But he is also the state dam inspector who has fallen years behind the legal schedule for safety inspections of the nearly 100 dams across the state categorized as potentially dangerous. His name is Tony Fletcher, and he has held the paid rugby coach job at the private Waterville college since 2001, except for one semester, according to the college. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Public Safety, Colby College, Dam, Dam safety, Maine DEP, Maine Emergency Management Agency, Paul LePage

LePage, lawmakers confident uninspected dams are safe

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AUGUSTA, Maine — No one in state government — all the way up to the governor — denies the state is failing to regularly inspect Maine’s potentially hazardous dams.

Most, though, don’t expect to do much about it, even though state law requires regular inspections. Some say there’s no risk in the current situation. Others say they are placing their faith in assurances from the Maine Emergency Management Agency that it is trying to solve the problem and that in the meantime, if a dam breaks, evacuation plans are up-to-date. Gov. Paul LePage’s press office issued a statement noting the lax inspection problem, documented last month by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, “has been an issue for decades,” but said that the news story “failed to recognize the efforts dam inspectors are currently engaged in.”

That includes “working towards meeting the standards of reporting,” the statement said. “For the dams that have been placed in the high risk category, emergency plans are in place and MEMA inspectors are actively involved educating dam owners.”

The center’s investigative report revealed that the state had records of on-time inspections of only 10 percent of the 93 dams in the state classified as high or significant hazard. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Public Safety, Dam, Dam safety, Maine Emergency Management Agency, Paul LePage

Half of dams that threaten lives lack state inspection

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Maine is not living up to the state law that requires regular inspections of the nearly 100 dams in the state classified as hazardous for their potential to take lives or sweep away buildings, roads and bridges. The state has 93 such dams from Limestone to Sanford. Of those, the state classifies 24 as “high hazard potential,” meaning that mis-operation or failure could “probably cause loss of life.”  The other dams are “significant hazard dams,” meaning a failure could cause property or environmental damage. Half of the high hazard dams are two to seven years overdue for their mandated inspection by a professional engineer,

according to records provided to the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting by the Maine Emergency Management Agency (MEMA). And the state has no record of any state inspection for another 25 percent of the high hazard dams, either because they have not been inspected or because of poor record keeping. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Public Safety, Stories, Dam, Dam safety, Maine Emergency Management Agency