Christmas Catastrophe: Crisis Averted at Adams Lake Dam

EXTENDED ABSTRACT - The holiday season is always a busy time of year, but imagine dealing with the potential for catastrophic failure of one of your dams during the holiday hustle and bustle. These were the circumstances surrounding the 1992 Adams Lake Dam incident in West Union, Ohio. The morning of December 21, 1992, a sinkhole was observed along the downstream slope of the embankment dam. It was determined that the sinkhole was the result of internal erosion of the embankment material caused by seepage through the embankment and the limestone abutment. As the erosion progressed, a pipe formed through the dam. The sinkhole was observed to be 3 to 4 feet in diameter and 4 feet deep, and flow was estimated to be 35 gallons per minute (gpm) through the sinkhole. This extended abstract and presentation will review the history of Adams Lake Dam and explore root causes for the development of this incident. The primary focus of the paper will be to review how the emergency procedures put in place by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) between December 21 and December 24, 1992 prevented a Christmas Eve catastrophe. The paper will highlight the effectiveness of planned and strategic interventions to prevent catastrophic failures in the presence of emerging failure mechanisms.