Badly needed repairs to Oklahoma City’s Overholser Dam — the failure of which could lead to hundreds of deaths and millions of dollars in property damage — could be imperiled because of federal grant cuts.
A Federal Emergency Management Agency grant, which city officials were counting on to pay for a majority of the estimated $52 million to $56 million redesign, has been canceled by the federal government because it was “ wasteful and ineffective ,” leaving city officials scrambling for other funding sources.
An investigation by The Oklahoman and USA TODAY in 2022 found the dam has been rated in poor condition , or in need of repairs, since at least 2018. That includes inoperable gates, cracked concrete, corrosion and metal loss. It also doesn’t meet the Oklahoma State Hydraulic code — the rules and standards for public water supply construction enforced by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, said Colin Young, a water resources design associate with Freese and Nichols, an engineering and consulting firm hired by the city…