There hasn't been a catastrophic dam failure in Texas in more than 70 years.
In Austin, the dam built in 1915 to prevent the city from flooding failed in 1935, and flooding left nearly 3,000 people homeless.
Today there are 7,644 known dams in Texas, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). They are built for recreation, water supply and flood control.
The Lower Colorado River Authority maintains and operates eight dams, including the six dams that make up the Highland Lakes. They inspect them on a yearly basis, according to LCRA spokesperson Krista Umscheid.
The federally funded U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains 28 of Texas' largest dams, including the San Gabriel Dam in Georgetown.
Parks Ranger Olen Burditt with the Army Corps of Engineers said they use technology to keep track of their dams.
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Dam safety
The inspections process for Texas' infrastructure is majorly backlogged and makes some dams' safety questionable.
 
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"We have instrumentation inside each dams that's inspected on a monthly basis," Burditt said.
The bulk of Texas dams are under the watch of the TCEQ, the state's environmental agency. TCEQ oversees more than 7,500 dams.
"We make sure that they are constructed properly, they are
maintained properly and they are operating properly," Dam Safety Program coordinator Warren Samuelson said.
However, it's unlikely TCEQ knows how most of their dams are doing because they are rarely inspected.
"We try to look at each dam once every five years," Samuelson said.
Their efforts fall short. Using the Texas Inventory of Dams Database, News 8 Austin discovered 1,826 dams have not been inspected in five years, 1,510 have not been inspected in 10 years and 1,030 dams have not been inspected in the last 20 years.
TCEQ's data shows 4,626 dams under TCEQ's watch have never been inspected.
Of the dams TCEQ has inspected, 173 of them are rated poor.
"Most of the ones that have not been inspected, it's because they are low hazard," Samuelson said.
That's not always true. Red Bluff Dam near Pecos in West Texas is a high hazard dam. A high hazard dam is one that, if were to fail or malfunction, could cause loss of life.
The Red Bluff Water Control District owns the dam. If Red Bluff Dam were to fail or malfunction, the water supply of area farmers would be threatened, according to District General Manager Randall Hartman.
TCEQ inspected Red Bluff Dam back in 1992. They gave it a poor rating then and they haven't been back since.
"If a dam is rated poor it means it has deficiencies that need to be corrected," Samuelson said.
TCEQ has kept in contact with the owners and engineers of Red Bluff Dam through phone calls and letters.
"We are not aware of any issues out there that they have not
addressed," Samuelson said.
However, TCEQ doesn't plan to return to the high hazard dam until next year, approximately 16 years after their initial visit.
"We are doing the best we can with what we have," Samuelson said.
The TCEQ operates with seven full time inspectors, two contractors and an annual budget of about $697,549. The state agency is state and federally funded.
Jack Furlong of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) said TCEQ doesn't have the resources needed to properly maintain the 7,500 under their watch.
ASCE rated all infrastructure in Texas in 2004, including roads and bridges. Furlong was on the committee that looked at dams.
"Dams got a grade of D minus," Furlong said. "Private dams that have been built across Texas don't get the inspections and operations and maintenance they need," Furlong said.
Furlong knows what failed infrastructure can do.
Failed levees in New Orleans flooded large portions of the city following Hurricane Katrina. A failed bridge in Minneapolis earlier this year killed 13 people.
"It's going to take something to get people's attention," Furlong said.
Furlong said Texans can only hope it's not a catastrophic dam
failure.
