Case Studies

El Guapo Dam (Venezuela, 1999)

Construction of El Guapo Dam began in 1975 and was completed in 1980. The dam is 197 feet tall and stores 114,000 acre-feet of drinking and irrigation water for the Barlovento Region in the state of Miranda, Venezuela. Because bedrock is deep…
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Equalizer Dam (Colorado)

The Equalizer Lake Dam is owned by the Greeley Loveland Irrigation Company and is located in Larimer County, Colorado approximately 50 miles north of Denver. The irrigation company operates and maintains a fifty mile long canal system, and four off channel reservoirs that supply water for agriculture…
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Folsom Dam (California, 1995)

Located approximately 20 miles northeast of Sacramento, California, Folsom Dam was designed and constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to generate hydropower along the American River. The 340-foot high concrete gravity Folsom Dam along with two earthen wing dikes…
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Fontenelle Dam (Wyoming, 1965)

Fontenelle Dam is located on the Green River near La Barge, Wyoming and was originally built in 1964 to provide irrigation water and hydropower for a region of southwest Wyoming. The earthfill embankment structure…
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Fort Peck Dam (Montana, 1938)

Beginning at about 1:15 pm on September 22, 1938, the upstream slope of the dam adjacent to the right abutment experienced a large failure as the construction work had progressed to within 20 feet of the final dam crest elevation. One hundred eighty men were working in the area.
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Front Range Flood (Colorado, 2013)

The September 2013 rainfall that occurred on the Front Range of Colorado was the result of an unusual, late season storm event where warm moisture and upslope winds allowed this regional storm to dump up to 17 inches of rain over a seven day period.
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Fujinuma Dam (Japan, 2011)

On March 11, 2011, a massive 500-600 km rupture off the east coast of Japan resulted in a powerful Magnitude 9.1 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The shaking also damaged at least 745 dams in Fukushima Prefecture and caused a rare seismically induced failure of Fujinuma Dam.
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Glen Canyon Dam (Arizona, 1983)

The United States Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) began construction of Glen Canyon Dam in 1956 as a part of the Colorado River Storage Project to provide water storage, flood control, and hydropower to Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico.
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Guajataca Dam (Puerto Rico, 2017)

Guajataca Dam is a 121 ft high, 1,037 ft long, high hazard potential earthen embankment structure constructed using semi-hydraulic fill methods for the central core (i.e., “puddle” core) and rolled and compacted outer shells composed of a mixture of clayey soils, gravel, and cobbles.
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Hawkins Dam (Washington, 2014)

Hawkins Dam impounded the most downstream reservoir in the Wenner Lakes chain of manmade lakes located 6 miles Southeast of Twisp WA in Okanogan County. Hawkins Dam Impounded Wenner Lake No. 1. Hawkins Dam is a 35-foot high earthfill dam with a crest length of 350 feet and impounds a 4-acre reservoir with a volume of 22 acre-feet…
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