could include the loss of Gableman's law license. In
environmental news, Wisconsin is home to more than 4000 dams and
most of them are very old and at risk of failing. It's left
communities across the state in a position to decide their
future before the dams burst and wreak havoc on the communities
downstream, “Here& Now” reporter Nathan Denzin visited
communities in western Wisconsin which are grappling with what to
do with their old dams. >> In the summer of 2018,
Wisconsin's Driftless Area was hit by massive and destructive
storms. >> They were good ones. They
were really dandy. >> If you were standing on top
of the dam, which is about 39ft above the valley floor, your
boots would have been in water. The cleanup took well over six
months. fail in the Creek and West Fork.
Kickapoo watersheds near Viroqua.
structures in the United States, five structures breached in one
event in 2018 that never happened before.
>> Bob Macheel is the Monroe County Land Conservation
director, which is in charge of the dams in the Creek watershed.
Somehow, no human lives were lost in 2018, but roads were
washed away and debris spread for miles.
>> If you have a structure that fails, it's like a giant
bulldozer racing down the valley floor, destroying everything in
its path. >> There are 23 earthen dams
between the two watersheds, and to the untrained eye, they just
look like big dirt hills. They're all past their 50 year
expected lifespan and climate change has supercharged storms.
The dams were never designed to hold back.
>> We have 11 more structures that are still standing. That
potential of happening again is still there.
>> The county commissioned a study along with state and
federal officials, to figure out what the future of the dams
might look like. The study considered nine options,
including rebuilding or removal was the only viable
solution. If they are taken out, it would be the largest dam
removal project in U.S. History. >> I was actually dumbfounded
that there would even be a discussion about about taking
these dams out. They've saved this community and this valley
from flash flooding now for nearly 60 years.
>> Dave Eggen is a retired farmer and representative on the
Vernon County Board, who has lived most of his life within a
mile of at least six of the dams. Despite the aging dams,
residents still say that they play a critical role in reducing
flood events. They worry that removing the dams would mean
multiple floods a year, hurting farming operations.
>> There is no protection from flash flooding, like a 30 foot
high earthen dam. >> His neighbors agree.
>> I have a concern over what will happen to our farming
operation. you know, how are we going to
have to react when the dam is gone?
what the benefit really is. >> Eggen recalled a story from
his grandfather who had farmed the valley before the dams were
built. >> After five years of farming
out here on these fields, he realized that he wasn't going to
make a living farming in this valley because of the constant
flash flooding. replace these dams is steep.
Estimated at about $61 million. Removing them would only cost
about 4 million. the financial resources to
operate, maintain and repair dams.
County resource conservationist who has been overseeing one dam
that's already in the process of being removed.
>> But where that clay meets these sandstone abutments or
hillsides, that's proven to be the weak point.
>> All of the old dams in this area were connected to sandstone
underneath hillsides, but over and the dam could breach.
>> We've seen one structure. You've seen them all because
they breached the same way. >> And if they breach a violent
burst of water would be released downstream with huge destructive
power. Monroe, La Crosse and Vernon counties have all
approved a plan to remove the dams, but it will take
additional studies, consultation and grant applications before
any Earth is actually moved. That leaves about 18 months for
Eggen and his allies to stress the importance of the dams and
provide viable alternatives to removal.
towards these dams being taken out with with hardly any
options. material and a friendly
contractor repairing the dams might not be as expensive as
initially thought. >> I personally talked with a
general contractor in the county to give me a ballpark to dig
down and put in new age plumbing. He said 200 to
$250,000. >> But his frustration runs
deeper than the ballpark figures noted in the study. Cost benefit
ratios were calculated to determine if federal funding
would be justified to repair the dams. That ratio concluded that
not enough people and structures are downstream for those dollars
to be released. >> Our country can spend $111
million on a missile, and they're shooting them off every
day over in in the middle East. But you can't come up with a
handful of millions of dollars to help restore life saving dams
like we're standing on. >> The one dam that did qualify
for federal funding to be reconstructed only did so
because it holds back a standing lake. Though that lake has been
contaminated multiple times by manure runoff, if the plans go
forward and the dams are removed, the community knows it
will have to change to survive future floods.
a reckoning about how we live on this land.
>> Biggest concern really is what are the next steps?
>> Sidney Widell and Nancy Wedwick are members of the Creek
Community Watershed Council. Wedwick serves as the president
and Widell is watershed coordinator.
out that there are indeed many things that you can do just as
people or as landowners, to mitigate flooding, to slow
water, to make running water walk.
stranger to first of its kind interventions. In the 1930s, the
federal government used this land to demonstrate the
effectiveness of sustainable >> Here we are again. What are
we going to do next? >> The likely answer returned to
many of the practices implemented in the 30 seconds
building the terraces, returning to the contour strips, and doing
whatever we can to infiltrate good quality water. Terrace
farms are higher on ridges and build berms between strips of
crops to slow water. She also mentioned the effectiveness of
planting perennials, oats, or even building more mini dams.
Anything to build the quality of the soil and slow water down.
>> There's some levers that we have more control over than
others, and it's a matter of using the levers we have as
effectively as possible. >> But, they added, we should
not think that, yes, by implementing a few practices,
we're going to solve problems. Flooding problems. No, we are
not. We can slow water and we can start a process.
>> A healthy ecosystem, they argue, will somewhat reduce the
danger of smaller floods. >> These smaller events the two,
five, ten, 25 year storm events, we can manage those. We can do
that. But when we get these 100 year storm events every year,
those are the ones we have to respect and stay out of harm's
way. people will have to relocate
from the valley floor, there are ever more concerns. Will
sediment from recently downstream? How will it affect
the famous trout streams around Creek? How will farms be
impacted? There aren't easy answers for any of those
questions, but these communities will have to grapple with them
over the coming months. For the people that are living and using
those buildings, that's their livelihood.
work I've ever done or will ever, ever do for "Here& Now".