Drowning Machines: Risks around low-head dams often learned one tragedy at a time

(InvestigateTV) — It started with a cryptic call from her daughter’s cell phone. First responders could be heard on the other end, saying they’d found her backpack and her phone before the line went dead.

Christina Brockwell spent the rest of that frantic afternoon checking hospitals and emergency dispatch centers as she tried to reach her 23-year-old daughter Lauren Winstead.

When she pulled into a Richmond, Virginia fire station and saw Lauren’s dog sitting there without her — the former ER nurse said she knew.

“One of the firemen I actually knew prior to this, and I just remember, I said, ‘I don’t need a private spot. Tell me what happened,’ and he said, ‘She’s missing’,” Brockwell said. “And I remember just looking at him and saying, ‘This sure feels different from this side of the fence.’”

It was Memorial Day 2022. Lauren had told her mother she’d be floating down the James River with friends. The group of twelve people and Lauren’s dog entered the river at Watkins Landing and planned to float leisurely down the river for about eight miles before exiting at another water access.

However, heavy rains the weekend before meant the river was experiencing abnormally high water levels and swift currents, causing the group to go over the Bosher Dam and fall into the turbulent water. Despite attempts from Good Samaritans, only 10 of the group of 12 were rescued, along with Lauren’s dog.

The initial search for Winstead, and her friend Sarah Erway, 28, was called off around sunset. Brockwell, along with family and friends, would spend the next two days pacing the riverside, calling Lauren’s name before her body was found nearly five miles downstream.

“I never thought that I would have to pull my daughter out of this river two days after she went missing because of a dam like Bosher,” Brockwell said.

At just 12 feet tall, Bosher Dam is considered a “low-head dam,”

But when it comes to hydraulics, low height does not equal low risk: Researchers believe low-head dams have caused more than 1,000 drownings over the last several decades, with an average of around 50 people killed each year.

These deaths have earned low head dams and the deceptively strong currents beneath them the haunting moniker “Drowning Machines,” — but critics say there is still limited and sporadic oversight of such infrastructure despite repeated tragedy.

Only a handful of states have statute-required inventories of where low-head dams exist, and even fewer have any statutory mandates requiring signs warning of the danger hiding in plain sight.

Such signage was noticeably absent the day Winstead and Erway were lost, leaving the group with no warning, Brockwell said.

“The dam sneaks up on you. It is quiet, it is ominous, and without any markers whatsoever, including online map references. If there is nothing saying there is a dam, it’s very easy to kind of approach it and have no idea,” she said.

A danger hiding in plain sight

Also known as “run-of-river” dams, roll-dams or weirs, low-head dams are structures built bank-to-bank across rivers and streams to control the flow of water.

Many of these dams were built decades or even centuries ago to power mills, provide irrigation or control fish populations, and are designed so that water flows continuously over the span — often causing them to blend in with the riverscape.

“A lot of times they’re hidden,” said Tom Smith, executive director of the American Society of Civil Engineers. “So, a lot of people don’t realize that they’re there, but there are literally thousands of these dams across the country.”

According to research by a nationwide task force of engineers from Brigham Young University, ASCE, the Association of State Dam Safety Officials and other industry stakeholders, there are more than 13,000 low-head dams dotting the landscape from coast to coast.

An exact total, however, remains unknown — with researchers estimating there are many more — because exact definitions vary, and many low-head dams are considered “non-jurisdictional.” This often means they are not overseen or inspected by any federal or state agencies, and only a handful of states have created running inventories.

“Each state kind of has a different personality when it comes to this issue and challenge,” said BYU professor Rollin Hotchkiss, who spearheaded the research that resulted in what is currently the only nationwide inventory of low-head dams.

To address the lack of official tracking, Hotchkiss worked with industry professionals to catalog any existing lists of low-head dams and engaged graduate students to review satellite images of U.S. waterways to identify additional potential dams. Those sites were then reviewed by experts and entered into the database.

That database has since been shared with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which while responsible for the National Inventory of Dams, doesn’t currently track structures that are under 25 feet tall — and most low-head dams are under 15 feet.

There have been calls for this to change: The Army Corps received funding for the 2024 fiscal year to create an inventory of low-head dams. Using the taskforce database as a starting point, the agency expects that inventory will be publicly available in 2025.

Additionally, the 2024 Water Resources Development Act making its way through Capitol Hill would require the Army Corps to include low-head dams in the official national inventory.

InvestigateTV’s repeated requests for an interview with the Army Corps went unanswered, with the agency eventually emailing a statement.

“USACE is committed to working with others at the federal, state, local and private level to identify low head dams and work towards solutions to improve their safety,” the statement said, in part.

Smith, of the civil engineers’ group, said getting a national account will go a long way, but it will take work at all levels to get a full picture of where these dams are, and how to deal with them.

“I think it’s like much of our infrastructure where you need a vision and a tone set by the federal government, but then you also need contributions by the state and local governments and the private sector, all working together to make sure that our infrastructure protects our public health, safety and welfare,” he said.

Deadly drowning machines

The task force and students at BYU also worked to catalogue a database of fatalities that have occurred in the “drowning machines” that form below low-head dams, making them so dangerous.

“It basically sucks you back into the direction of the dam itself and you have no shot,” Hotchkiss explained. “The upstream directed velocity is equal to what a varsity high school swimmer can do in great shape. The downward force of the water pushing them back down into the water is greater than your body weight, and the bubbles in the water reduce the buoyancy which helps people rise or float.”

Additionally, low head dams are deceptively calm from upstream, adding another element of danger. The dams can be difficult for swimmers and boaters to see and their powerful currents difficult to detect, with survivors saying that even once they noticed a structure, it was too late.

The BYU research found more than 1,000 deaths at low-head dam sites through the end of 2022, but Hotchkiss said the number is likely higher because the researchers had to rely on news reports in the absence of any official tracking of such fatalities.

“There have been more fatalities at low head dams than from dam failures over the last 50 years,” he said.

InvestigateTV conducted its own anecdotal search and found reports of more than 20 additional deaths that had occurred at low-head dams since that research was concluded., including three people who drowned while tubing when they went over a low-head dam in Arizona and a pair of kayakers who died after getting caught in the current of an Indiana dam this past April.

Hotchkiss said overall annual fatality totals appear to be declining, but that lives are still being lost.

“I don’t know if that’s attributable to our work in any way, but that is our goal to save lives,” he said. “These deaths need not occur.”

Part of what makes low-head dams so deadly is that once someone is pulled into the dangerous current, it is not only difficult for them to escape — but it is just as dangerous for someone to try to pull them out.

InvestigateTV reviewed the BYU catalog and found dozens of cases where would-be rescuers ultimately became victims themselves, including multiple instances where first responders such as firefighters drowned while attempting to pull people from the water.

Hotchkiss said based on his research, roughly 1 in 4 drowning machine victims is someone who was simply trying to help.

Training and rescue equipment

Even training to respond to an emergency at a low-head dam can be fraught with risk.

In a 2007 firefighter training exercise in Ohio, two firefighters nearly drowned while responding to a simulated low-head dam emergency, one of whom was unable to return to active duty.

The dam was only 5-6 feet tall.

“Low-head dams are extremely difficult to train for because you don’t want to, you can’t put your personnel into the dam,” said Brian Enterline, the fire chief in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “Our goal is to make sure that we send them home every day at the end of their shift, and part of that is making sure that they’re trained, competent and capable to respond to any type of incident that occurs throughout the city, including the river.”

Harrisburg is home to the Dock Street Dam, a structure across the Susquehanna River that has seen at least 30 fatalities over its lifetime, making it the deadliest low-head dam in the country.

Enterline said since his department took over emergency response on the river, his crews monitor the river levels daily.

The city also made a crucial purchase — a specialized swift-water rescue boat designed to handle the churning boil beneath a low-head dam.

The vessel, which Enterline estimated cost about $5,000, has made a major difference.

“We have used it that multiple times since it’s been purchased and have successfully rescued several people from the dam,” Enterline said. “This was a necessity that has already paid for itself with saving just one life.”

However, not all jurisdictions have invested in the same way.

InvestigateTV reached out to the 25 cities with the most fatalities listed in the BYU database and found a patchwork of strategies when it comes to equipment or specialized training needed for low-head dam rescues.

For example, in Iowa City, Iowa — which has seen at least 12 fatalities — a spokesperson said the fire department receives training to “hone their situational awareness” in how conditions at the dam affect a water rescue, and the city owns an inflatable rescue craft. Columbus, Ohio — where at least 7 people have died — reported its rescue technicians are specifically trained in operating its inflatable swift water rescue vessel around a low head dam and in using maneuvers that have been proven to work.

Others introduce first responders to the dangers of low-head dams, but due to jurisdictional and resource limitations don’t have their own specialized equipment.

Warning signs

With their smaller scale, these lower-profile structures can be easy for swimmers and boaters to miss, especially if water levels are higher.

Such was the case with the Bosher Dam the day Christina Brockwell’s daughter went over it. Brockwell said as she learned in the weeks following her daughter’s death about the danger posed by the dam, the harder it became to accept that there was so little warning for the group as they floated down the river.

“In some ways, it’s very frustrating. It’s hard not to be angry. It’s hard not to be very disappointed that things could have been done before now,” she said.

Not only was there no sign where the group put in, Brockwell said, but nothing warning about the dam as they made their way the eight miles down the river.

“That’s a huge distance,” she said. “Not one sign even saying there was a dam.”

The vast majority of states do not require any kind of warning signs for low-head dams, because the dams fall outside of the state’s inspection and oversight criteria.

Even in the five states that have passed legislation involving low-head dam safety, the approach to signage varies.

Pennsylvania requires low-head dam owners to mark the structures with warning signs and buoys and maintain those signs to set standards, whereas Indiana and Iowa have established standards for signage but don’t actually require that they be in place.

In Virginia, where the Bosher Dam is located, the state’s dam safety law states that the owner of a low-head dam that does not put up proper signage has not met “the duty of care” — but the statute doesn’t explicitly require signs.

Illinois treats low-head dam oversight on a case-by-case basis.

Complicating the issue further, Smith with ASCE said, is the reality that many low-head dams are privately owned or even “orphaned” — meaning they were built decades or even centuries ago, and the ownership isn’t clear.

“When you don’t know who owns it, then who’s responsible for that? Who has to go put up the signage? And that also adds to the complexity,” he said.

But signs can make a difference.

In Concord, California, after two teenagers drowned in 2011 beneath a low-head dam in a flood control canal, the local government ramped up its efforts to make the danger explicitly clear.

In addition to making the signs on the fencing more eye-catching and highlighting that the canal is not open to public access, first responders and city officials now spend time in local schools each year explaining the danger, and students make their own warning signs.

Since the 2011 drownings, officials said there have not been any further incidents.

Education

Enterline, the Harrisburg fire chief, said it’s also up to those who choose to get in the water to educate themselves about any potential dangers.

“The last folks that we had go over the dam were from out of the area, had no idea about the Susquehanna River. They just decided it was a great place to come and put their boat in,” he said.

He added: “It is that negligence and ‘It won’t happen to me attitude,’ and that’s what we really need to change, and that’s a difficult thing to do.”

Boater education requirements vary greatly from state to state, many only requiring safety certification and licensing for boaters who are under 18, and five states — Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, South Dakota and Wyoming — have no education requirement.

When looking at the testing required to obtain a license, InvestigateTV found many states outsource education to online safety courses, such as Boat-Ed or BOATERexam.com, both of which include modules touching on low-head dam safety.

However, InvestigateTV’s review of the task force fatality data found that at least a third of the cataloged deaths involved a kayak, canoe or inflatable vessel, and licensing and safety requirements rarely apply to boats that are human-powered: There are no states that require an operating license for canoes and kayaks, and only a few states require such vessels be registered.

“Unfortunately, time and time again, those fatalities add up,” Enterline said.

Remedy and removal

Knowing the location of dams, installing signs and encouraging boater education may reduce the likelihood of tragedy at a low-head dam, but such efforts do nothing to actually mitigate the risk itself.

“You know, you can put up a sign all day long, but as long as that danger still exists, the sign is only as good as the people who look at it, read it, interpret it and change what they’re doing, and that’s not predictable, that’s not reliable,” said Brockwell, whose daughter drowned in the Richmond dam. “I definitely think that you need to know where the problems are. You need to know if it creates a public safety risk, and then there needs to be a plan in place that says we modify the risk, not just we hope someone reads a sign.”

Most low-head dams have far outlived their initial purpose to grind grains or irrigate farmland, and many communities have successfully removed the structures or considered it.

Of the 25 cities with the most fatalities, InvestigateTV was able to confirm about a third have removed one or more of the deadly low-head dams in their jurisdiction or are actively in the process.

But many dams cannot be removed, either because they are privately owned, still functionally necessary — providing flood control or economy-driving recreation — or because doing so would be cost-prohibitive.

Still, there are other ways to curb the dangerous currents that form at low-head dams through simple re-engineering and adaptation, which leaves industry experts like Smith at ASCE even more frustrated that people continue to die.

“There are so many instances of great pain and suffering that we’ve seen around the country as a result of this,” he said. “We know the risk is there. We know how to mitigate against the risk. And some of them are fairly low cost.”

One of the most popular and cost-effective solutions is the installation of rock ramps, which break up the recirculating current of a low-head dam, eliminating the danger.

Professor Hotchkiss at BYU said he and his colleagues recognize the fiscal challenges and frequent legal hurdles that come along with their suggestions but said unless more is done, people will continue to die.

“I don’t delve into motivations and reasons from my position,” he said, “but there are a few locations where literally dozens of people have died, and it’s beyond me why those low-head dams continue to be there. I simply don’t know.”

Whether it’s removal, remediation or simply recognition of the thousands of low-head dams across the country, Brockwell said she hopes her daughter’s story can encourage other communities to make changes the way Richmond has.

“[Lauren] still continues to motivate and inspire me to continue to try to make changes here,” she said. “She loved the water. She loved being outside, and she wouldn’t want someone to come here and be afraid to get on this river.”

Since that fateful Memorial Day, the city has updated and added signs around the river warning of the hazardous dam and has also purchased a specialized rescue craft.

Brockwell also succeeded in getting the dam added to online maps of the James River, so those who do proactively plan for safety know it’s there.

“I think she would be very proud of kind of moving forward, and she would 100% support the changes that we’ve made so far,” Brockwell said. “And she would want to continue until that dam was not so deadly.”

Scotty Smith contributed to this report.

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