BIL provding About $3 Billion To Upgrade & Fix Dams; It's Welcome, But Just A Drop In The Bucket

MINNEAPOLIS—A record amount of federal aid will soon flow to states to help fix, replace or demolish their aging dams, many of which are under increasing pressure as climate change fuels more frequent and severe extreme weather events. About $3 billion was dedicated to dam projects under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which Congress passed in 2021. A chunk of those allocated funds has been awarded to states this year through several federal grant programs aimed at improving dam safety and upgrading the nation’s hydropower infrastructure.

So far this year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has distributed a record $215 million in dam safety grants. And earlier this month, the Department of Energy announced it was handing out more than $433 million to projects that will improve safety and grid resilience for hydropower dams across 33 states.

But Midwestern states are largely missing out on that historic pool of money when compared to other U.S. regions, according to an Inside Climate News analysis of federal data. Eleven Midwest states will receive a total of $30 million in FEMA dam safety grants this year, just half of the roughly $60 million that 13 states in the South will receive. Another $60 million will go to 11 states in the Northeast. In the West, 11 states will receive about $45 million. Similarly, the Energy Department will split about $63 million between seven Midwest states to improve their hydropower dams. That amount is about half of what Northeastern and Southern states will receive and about a third of what Western states will get. DOE awarded more than $176 million to six Western states: Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Utah.

State dam safety officials said that discrepancy is due to several factors, including the presence of larger dams with more people living downstream in the West and Northeast. Because FEMA has a limited amount of money to give out, the agency is prioritizing dams in the poorest condition that also pose the greatest risk to the public. Midwest states also tend to have fewer hydroelectric dams than coastal states, as well as some Southern states.

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20092024/midwest-dam-safety-projects-funding/