Wisconsin seeing more dam failures

According to a report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum, Wisconsin is seeing more frequent dam failures, which is another sign that the storms blowing through the state are growing stronger. Wisconsin recorded 34 dam failures from 2000 through 2023. 28 of those failures happened since the start of 2018, and 18 of those happened since the start of 2020. None of the failures resulted in human deaths, the report found. The state is home to more than 4,000 dams and more than 200 dams have been classified as high hazard potential, meaning failure would probably cause human deaths. Every state budget since 2009 has provided at least $4 million for dam safety work, according to the report. The funding has been enough to improve the state’s most important dams, but “a changing climate — triggering more frequent and more severe extreme rain events — could pose new and greater tests to our dam infrastructure,” it warns.