Dams and surrounding infrastructure may need to be upgraded to prevent potential damage from earthquakes and other natural disasters.
The State of Nevada recently received $10M in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to upgrade the dam at Marlette Lake on the rim between the Lake Tahoe Basin and Carson City. The dam is estimated to be more than 150 years old, and the reservoir it holds provides water for multiple counties and cities in northern Nevada.
The lake and its surrounding land were originally purchased in 1963. The aging infrastructure and increasing seismic activity in the region caused the dam to be labeled as a “high hazard.” Annual inspections determined an earthquake with a magnitude of at least 6.5 would most likely breach the dam, which would cause a disaster.
The dam was constructed before Nevada had begun regulating dams, so some of the construction details are unknown.
The rehabilitation efforts are expected to reduce the number of vulnerabilities the dam has. The Division of Water Resources oversees approximately 660 dams throughout the state, and there are many more that are not under the Division’s purview.
Several of the dams could negatively impact many people in the Silver State if they were to fail. A quarter of the state-monitored dams are labeled as high hazards. The label does not consider the condition of the dam, simply the impact it would have if it were to fail.
Notably, many dams in Nevada are in poor condition. A 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers report graded Nevada’s dams as a D+. This report can be backed by another report made by the National Inventory of Dams in 2023, which also found Nevada’s dam population to be of poor quality. (Source)
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