A new report says the owners and regulators of a Nebraska dam that failed last year underestimated the potential for it to cause life-threatening damage. A man who lived downstream from Spencer Dam died when it failed during an icy flood in March 2019. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials released a report Tuesday. It says regulators were unaware the dam had failed under pressure from ice in 1935 and been damaged by ice in 1960 and 1966. But the report says there’s little the dam’s operators could have done on the day of the March 2019 flood to prevent it from collapsing.
Nebraska dam had history of ice woes before fatal failure
FILE - This combination of file photos provided by the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, shows the Spencer Dam near Spencer, Neb., in November 2013, top, when it was holding back water on the Niobrara River and again in March 2019, after the dam failed during a flood. The dam that collapsed under pressure from an icy flood had a history of unaddressed ice issues and had no formal emergency plan because regulators wrongly assumed that no one would die if it failed, according a report released Tuesday April, 21, 2020. (Nebraska Department of Natural Resources via AP)
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