A Dam Breaks in Georgia

And the disaster dramatizes a national problem

Shortly after 1 a.m., a churning mass of water 30 ft. high thundered down a Georgia valley toward the eleven houses, 25 trailer homes and various other buildings of Toccoa Falls Bible College. As the torrent surged through the campus last week, power lines fell and exploded in sparks, trailers were ripped from their moorings, automobiles floated away like fishermen's bobbers. In the basement of Forrest Hall, a 140-bed dormitory, 22-year-old Senior Bobby Carter had finished his nightly devotion, reading from II Corinthians, and was just falling asleep when his windowsill fan hurtled across the room on the crest of a wave. Carter swam for the stair well and made it to safety. Three friends drowned in adjoining rooms. In all, 38 members of the college community, including 18 children, perished.

During the weekend, 5 in. of rain had fallen on Toccoa ("beautiful place" in the Cherokee language). The swollen, 50-acre-wide lake at the head of the valley burst the earthen dam, which had been built in 1901 and enlarged in 1937. Said Ron Farnsworth, whose trailer was on high ground and was spared: "I believe God took home the people he wanted to take home. They were all born-again believers. This is a victory for them." College President Kenn Opperman called the disaster "an obstacle we are going to convert into a steppingstone. This is a privilege . . . a beginning, not an end."

The Toccoa tragedy is a challenge to civil authorities, as well as to the religious faith of its surviving victims. It dramatizes the inadequacy of the nation's safety program for dams--federal, state and private. Congress passed a Dam Inspection Act in 1972, but it was not properly funded, nor has it been properly enforced--even after Idaho's Teton Dam collapsed last year, killing eleven and causing $400 million worth of damage. Part of the problem: the law authorized enough money for the Army's Corps of Engineers to make an inventory but not a detailed safety inspection of the nation's 49,500 dams. The inventory, costing $3.4 million, classified 9,000 dams as "high hazard" structures, not because they were necessarily faulty but because there could be substantial loss of life and property if any failed. The corps estimates that a full inspection to determine which dams need reinforcement would cost $367 million, but only $15 million is available under the 1972 law. Says Leo J. Ryan, chairman of a House environmental subcommittee: "Some of these dams are like a loaded shotgun pointed at the people downstream. There are any number of old, small dams that could give way."

At his press conference last week, President Carter vowed the Government would "pursue without surcease" the federal inspection program with the $15 million. He has asked the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation for proposals to regulate the safety of the 47,500 privately owned dams. Earlier, White House Press Secretary Jody Powell had announced that the Administration will seek more funds next year.

The problem is more pressing than even that timetable suggests. The National Research Council in a report estimates--and the Bureau of Reclamation agrees--that 13 of the 330 dams in the West built and supervised by the bureau "require modification to prevent their failure" under heavy flooding conditions. The dams and the necessary repairs:

> Arizona: Stewart Mountain and Theodore Roosevelt Dams, both on the Salt River, need reinforcement.

> California: East Park Dam on Little Stony Creek requires a larger spillway. Stony Gorge Dam, in the Orland Project near Chico, needs reinforcement.

> Idaho: Black Canyon Dam on the Payette River should have better seepage control and an auxiliary spillway. Island Park Dam on Henrys Fork River needs a rebuilt spillway.

> Montana: Gibson Dam on the Sun River requires new piers and reinforcement. Willow Creek Dam needs major repairs.

> Nevada: Lahontahn Dam on the Carson River has an inadequate spillway.

> Oklahoma: Altus Dam on the North Fork of the Red River needs a new dike.

> South Dakota: Deerfield Dam on Castle Creek should be raised 16 ft.

> Utah: Hyrum Dam on Little Beaver River needs a new spillway.

> Wyoming: Jackson Lake Dam ought to be reinforced against the earthquakes to which that area is susceptible.

Those improvements alone would cost $36.5 million. The Bureau of Reclamation has petitioned for funding, and the OMB is expected to act on the request later this month. But it is up to Congress, not the Executive Branch, to provide the money to confront the problem adequately. With another disaster to spur his colleagues to action, Idaho's Senator James McClure plans to resubmit two dam-safety bills that were introduced, unsuccessfully, after the Teton Dam collapse. Said McClure's home-state Senate partner Frank Church: "We have got to move urgently to watch over these dams, rebuild them if necessary, but make sure that they are safe."

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