Sometimes It Gets Dam Scary.

• Position: New Jersey to allocate funds for dam repair and inspection - Brief Article

The New Jersey Legislature is considering a bill to spend $135 million to repair hundreds of fragile dams in the state.

"Some people say $135 million is too much, says Senator Robert E. Littell, a co-sponsor of S1714. "Others say it's not enough. We're certainly not going to spend more than we need to, but we ought to show that we're serious about this because it's a public safety issue."

Senator Anthony Bucco, Littell's co-sponsor of the bill, points out that dams failed during recent storms because they had not been inspected and repaired properly.

Dams can create a false sense of security that encourages construction of more homes and businesses in what normally is a flood-plain. When a big flood exceeds the dam's limits, the consequences are worse than if nothing had been built in the first place. "The potential energy of the water stored behind even a small dam can cause loss of life and great property damage if there are people downstream" when it breaks, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

New Jersey residents painfully learned this lesson during the past two years. Several privately owned dams collapsed last summer due to torrential rains. Hurricane Floyd caused three dams to fail and damaged 21 others in 1999. A total of 51 dams have failed in the past 15 years, state officials report.

The bill allocates $27 million a year for five years to test and repair dams, no matter...