Eve is here. As the United States grapples with further military escalation, it not only strips away social safety nets but further neglects an already crumbling infrastructure. Most of you have probably read before about the deplorable and dangerous condition of America’s bridges due to lack of investment in maintenance. This warning about dams and levees should raise alarm, but it probably won’t. Unlike bridge collapses, floods caused by the failure of dams or other water-stopping systems are triggered by some type of weather phenomenon, making them easier for politicians to treat as “outrageous events.”
We’ve had a lot of flooding here (particularly not where I am, but certain roads can be submerged for a few hours at most; we’re in a rocky area, so continuous heavy rains quickly flow into the sea), including recently in the tourist city of Hat Yai, where the local airport was flooded and a national emergency response was required. Flooding in low-lying areas is common here, so even if it’s not as frequent or severe as this year, there’s no telling when complaints about possibly preventable damage will start. Americans tend to be more vocal about property damage, but at the end of the day, I question whether they have the will or resources to get out in front of this looming threat.
Written by Jeff Masters. First published: Yale Climate Connections
Fairfax Falls hydroelectric dam in Fairfax, Vermont, overtopped by extreme flooding on July 11, 2023. (Image credit: AJ Murray. Used with permission.)
“America’s infrastructure is the foundation upon which our national economy, global competitiveness, and quality of life depend,” begins the 2025 Report Card on America’s Infrastructure, published by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), an industry group.
The report, published every four years, gave the U.S. infrastructure an overall grade of C, an increase from the C grade in the 2021 report. ASCE credited the improvements in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act of 2021, as well as the federal government’s partnerships with state and local governments and the private sector.
However, the dams, levees, stormwater and wastewater infrastructure components received grades of D to D+. This is alarming given that climate change is putting increasing stress on dams, stormwater, sewers, and stormwater systems due to increased precipitation. Additionally, the federal government has shown little interest in maintaining the funding needed to continue infrastructure development.
In ASCE’s words, a “D” grade means “the infrastructure is in fair to poor condition, with most substandard, and many elements nearing the end of their useful lives. Significant degradation is present in large portions of the system. Condition and capacity are of serious concern with a strong risk of failure.” Since the first ASCE was published in 1998, each ASCE assessment has given U.S. women a “D” or “D+” grade.
ASCE called for more than $165 billion in dams, $70 billion in levees, and $690 billion in wastewater and stormwater systems by 2044. This totals about $1 trillion.
Change in heavy precipitation (defined as the top 1% of precipitation events) from 1958 to 2021, according to the 2023 U.S. National Climate Assessment. (Image courtesy of Climate Central)
Climate change increases risks to water-related infrastructure
According to a January 2021 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, flood losses in the United States are increasing by $2.5 billion annually due to increased precipitation in the United States in recent decades, due in part to climate change. The researchers, climate scientists at Stanford University, found that between 1988 and 2017, heavier precipitation accounted for more than a third of the damage.
“There is real economic value in avoiding higher levels of global warming,” study co-author Noah Diffenbaugh said in an interview with E&E News. “This is not a political statement. It’s a statement of fact about costs. It also shows that there is real economic value in adaptation and resilience because we are clearly not adapting to the climate change that is already happening.”
Aging infrastructure and frequent and intense storms are putting additional strain on the nation’s dams. Since 2018, heavy rains have caused about 30 dams in the Midwest alone to fail or come close to failure, according to ASCE. Some examples:
Minnesota, June 2024: The 115-year-old Rapidan Dam collapsed after several repairs since 2002 and was rated in poor condition in 2023. The failure destroyed the power plant and destroyed part of the riverbank.
Michigan, May 2020: Heavy rains from a 200-year storm destroyed two 96-year-old dams, Edenville Dam and Sanford Dam, and damaged four other dams, causing $250 million in damages.
U.S. dams need more than $165 billion in renovations
Based on the latest data from the Association of State Dam Safety Officials, ASCE estimates the cost of repairing all non-federal dams in the United States (accounting for 96% of the nation’s more than 92,000 dams) at $165 billion. Of this amount, $37 billion is needed to address dams that are at high risk of failure, resulting in loss of life and significant property damage. Although not quantified in the report, additional funding will be needed to upgrade federal dams.
More than 2,500 dams are considered “high risk.” The number of dams in this class has increased by 20% since 2012. This is mainly due to increased development in downstream areas.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the dams it maintains are designed to last 50 years. However, the average age of dams in the United States is 64 years, and more than 70% of dams in the United States are over 50 years old. Old dams are dangerous. Approximately 75% of all dam failures in the United States occurred in dams older than 50 years.
A debris flow is filling the Feather River from the damaged spillway of California’s Oroville Dam, the tallest dam in the United States, which nearly collapsed in February 2017. The Oroville incident forced the evacuation of nearly 190,000 people and cost $1.1 billion in repairs. (Image courtesy of California Department of Water Resources)
The main problem with older dams is that as they age, their reservoirs gradually fill up with sediment, reducing their storage capacity and increasing the risk of the dam overflowing and failing. This problem will be further exacerbated by climate change, as increased droughts and wildfires in surrounding watersheds will increase the amount of debris flow that enters reservoirs during heavy rains. Furthermore, dams built for flood control purposes in the 20th century’s climate may no longer be useful in the warming climate of the 21st century. In the 21st century climate, more intense downpours can be expected to put pressure on infrastructure not designed for such extreme flows.
Worst: Vermont dams.
In Vermont, the average age of dams in the state is 89 years, and many were not built using modern codes and standards. In other words, they are not designed to withstand increasingly intense and frequent storms. After the historic floods in July 2023, state dam inspectors found that 57 dams had been overtopped by floodwaters, 50 dams had “significant damage” and five dams had failed.
U.S. levees need major renovations costing more than $70 billion
“Across the country, 23 million Americans live and work behind levees,” the report states. “The National Levee Database includes more than 24,000 levees across the United States, nearly two-thirds of which have not been evaluated for the risk they pose to the communities behind them.”
In that context, the School of Civil Engineering’s 2025 report card grade of D+ for 40,000 miles nationwide is concerning. ASCE said the cost of restoring the nation’s levees to a state of good repair is significantly higher than its 2021 estimate of $70 billion.
Milds in the United States are on average 61 years old, and many are built using engineering standards that are less rigorous than current best practices. The good news is that less than 3% of U.S. milds are rated high or very high risk, down from 4% in 2021.
70% of wastewater and stormwater systems are underfunded
“The value of the nation’s sewer system is estimated to be more than $1 trillion, which includes approximately 17,500 water pipes.
“Wastewater treatment facilities operated to protect public health and ensure the well-being of the community,” the report states.
In 2024, annual funding needs for wastewater and stormwater were $99 billion, but funding was only 30% of that, or $30 billion annually. “Assuming the combined wastewater and stormwater sectors follow the same path, that gap will grow to more than $690 billion by 2044,” the report states.
The stormwater infrastructure and wastewater infrastructure report’s D and D+ grades, respectively, remain unchanged from the 2021 report, despite the $46 billion in funding allocated by the bipartisan Infrastructure and Inflation Control Act in 2021 and 2022 to support the stormwater, wastewater, and drinking water sectors.
Spending on smart infrastructure is essential
Huge investments in infrastructure are essential, but those funds must be spent wisely. Many infrastructure upgrades do not take into account future climate extremes. In a 2022 New York Times op-ed, sea-level rise expert Robert Young of Coastal Carolina University wrote, “Most funded projects are designed to protect existing infrastructure, and in most cases they leave recipients vulnerable to disaster.” “We do not require better long-term planning for floodplains or changes in future patterns of floodplain development. At the very least, we need to require communities that accept public funding for rebuilding and restoration to stop putting new infrastructure at risk.”
Some projects funded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act of 2021 were of questionable wisdom. For example, we allocated funds to procure 19 single-family homes in the Florida Keys. I love the Keys, but a cruel calculation shows that it is not cost-effective to protect the low-lying islands, and they are almost certain to be inundated by sea level rise in the coming decades. A state-commissioned report released in 2020 by the Urban Land Institute found that spending about $8 billion to combat sea level rise and storm surge in the Keys would only prevent about $3 billion in damage between 2020 and 2070, yielding a return of just 41 cents for every dollar spent. By contrast, a similar investment in Miami would yield more than $9 in return for every dollar spent, the study found.
Chuck Malone, a civil engineer and founder of the nonprofit strongtowns.org, also argues that infrastructure spending that promotes sprawl should be avoided. “When you spread out outwards, every new house creates more public obligations to maintain. More pipes, more roads, more services. But it doesn’t create a corresponding increase in tax productivity. Instead, you end up with what’s called a ‘bad party’: places where new residents consume more than they contribute.”
Bob Henson contributed to this post.
