Recent study gives 3 Stephens County dams poor ranking, but expert says “Stephens County dams are not close to failing”

Stephens County has three high hazard dams in poor conditions. That’s according to a recently published study by The Associated Press.

According to its findings, there are at least 1,680 dams across the United States that pose potential risk.

WNEG News reached out to Georgia Department of Natural Resources Safe Dam Progam Manager Thomas Woosley.

He says three dams in Stephens County received a poor rating because of a permit issue after the regulations for dams changed.

“Our program, for years, inspected every category 1 dam,” he said. “Then in 2010, we shifted to do half each year, because the inventory just got so large, and was taking a lot of time with the staff that we had to get it all done. We’ve always encouraged owners to do inspections as well, but there were a lot of owners that weren’t. So, in September 2016, we got our rules changed to say that owners must do quarterly inspections, and once every two years hire a professional engineer to do an inspection.”

Just over 42 years ago, on November 6, 1977, the Kelly Barnes Dam above the Toccoa Falls gave way during a heavy rain storm, flooding the campus of Toccoa Falls College, killing 39 people, many of them entire families.

With three of the dams in Stephens County rated as high hazard dams, the Associated Press says loss of human life is likely if these dams were to fail.

Stephens County Emergency 911 Director Danielle Rhodes says if one of the dams broke the county would follow the Emergency Action Plan.

“Larger dams, especially dams like Yonah Dam is maintained and owned by Georgia Power, so if anything happens, they notify me directly…I have a copy of their Emergency Action Plan, in my office, that will tell me things like ‘who their engineers are,’ and ‘if it’s a total failure or a partial failure how far the flooding or what it will look like.’ I have maps, I can pull out a map and look at sections and grids to see where that water is going to flood. At that point, of course, we would notify our citizens,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes adds that she also contacted Woosley, who told her that the dams are well built and its unlikely that they will fail.

“’The dams that you’re speaking of are pretty well built’ and he (Woosley) said ‘they’re not close to failing, that’s not what the poor condition means, it’s a permit issue in this case that they‘re working towards correcting it,” Rhodes said.

Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Former Administrator Craig Fugate tells AP, that “most people have no clue about the vulnerabilities when they live downstream from dams…When they fail, they don’t fail with warning. They just fail, and suddenly you can find yourself in a situation where you have a wall of water and debris racing toward your house with very little time, if any, to get out.”

According to the Associated Press, Georgia led the nation with nearly 200 high-hazard dams in unsatisfactory or poor condition.

For additional information regarding the Associated Press’ study visit apnews.com.