Over 500 dams dot the Adirondack Park, shaping the physical and social landscape of the region more than any other infrastructure.

The dams are integral to Adirondack history and the way today’s residents and visitors experience the park. They also quietly threaten public safety.

For the past year, I compiled documents, visited dams, interviewed owners and examined the state of those hundreds of dams. This weekend we started rolling out a series of stories that explores the safety and ownership of the riskiest structures, the unique position of backcountry dams and lessons from other states about how to improve dam safety.

Check out the first set of stories online:

• An overview of the role dams play in shaping the region
• An investigation into the state of the park’s riskiest high hazard dams.
• Three stories that illustrate the varied ownership of dams and how that impacts the state’s ability to compel action to make improvements: Garnet Lake Dam, Rainbow Lake Dam and Indian Lake Stone Dam
• A database of dams within the Blue Line and their most recent inspection reports

Here is a summary of the key findings from our reporting:

• State inspectors judge 10 Adirondack high hazard dam as “unsound,” meaning their safety cannot be assured
• Half of the park’s 50 intermediate hazard dams have failed to submit engineering assessments that were due in 2015
• When state officials pursue enforcement of negligent owners, it can take years to compel repairs or removal
• While dams are one of the few pre-existing structures allowed in wilderness areas, remote dams have seen little maintenance and are slowly deteriorating in backcountry waters
• Other state dam programs demonstrate that more can be done to publicize important dam safety information, including maps that show the expected flood zones of dams if they were to ever fail

There are more stories to come this weekend and the weekend after that, including on wilderness dams and a look at dam safety strategies from across the country.

This first appeared in Zach’s weekly “Water Line” newsletter. Click here to sign up.

The Conklingville Dam. Photo by Zachary Matson