Dam Safety Awareness Day Spotlights Importance Of Annual Maintenance And Improvements

Friday was National Dam Safety Awareness Day.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the day is to encourage and promote individual and community responsibility and best practices for keeping dams safe and the steps to prevent catastrophic failure.

The day also serves as a memoriam of the more than 22-hundred people who died in the 1989 South Fork Dam failure near Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

Here in the lake area, Bagnell Dam continues to stay well ahead of the curve in the way of safety after recently completing some $52-million worth of structural updates which included the installation of new anchors which hold the dam to the underlying bedrock.

Improvements have also been underway at Truman Dam to keep it up to date as well.