REXBURG—Today marks 50 years since the Teton Dam disaster, an event that shaped Eastern Idaho. The harrowing but interesting history behind the Teton Dam is one to remember and read about.
Nathaniel Gee, a dam safety engineer, grew up hearing stories about the dam. His father experienced the flooding firsthand. Gee recently released a book, “Failure and Fortitude: How Faith, Politics and Power Shaped the Teton Dam Disaster.” It details his research and findings as he has looked in the history of Teton Dam from its construction to the failure and the aftermath that followed.
“If you are a dam safety engineer, you've heard of Teton because it impacted our industry so much,” Gee said.
Not only did the disaster impact the industry, but Gee worked at the Bureau of Reclamation where the dam safety program started because of the failure.
About 10 years ago, Gee became curious from the safety engineer perspective about doing some “consequence studying of dams.” This is where an engineer looks at if a dam failed who would be impacted. Gee said he was shocked with his model prediction, especially when the failure led to 11 deaths in total.
“None of my modeling that I've done as a professional engineer would ever do a scenario that worked out that well,” Gee said.
Of the 11 deaths: 6 were from drowning, 3 were heart attacks, and 2 were gunshot wounds.
This surprising research led Gee to learn more about the history of Teton Dam from its ideation to the failure on June 5, 1976, to see what else he could uncover. He wanted to know why it was even built.
Dams became popular with Hoover Dam as it was the “ultimate solution,” Gee said. Dams solve water problems such as supply, flood control, recreation and irrigation.
“Every politician wanted a dam in their backyard. And you know, Idaho was no different,” Gee said.
The major failure of the dam came down to a couple of things. The Teton Dam’s key trench was not built on a solid foundation, and there was no filter put on it. It was decided to cut a trench on each side and fill it with good dam material, a technique called surface grouting.
“It was really important that they cover all the little cracks in this trench, because you're cutting this trench through really cracked up rock,” Gee said.
The designers did not put a specification, so it was up to the contractor, which they did for a while then they stopped. The filter would have prevented core dam material from going downstream. The Teton Dam disaster was a difficult lesson on dam safety engineering for the industry.
“There's no doubt in my mind that you could build a safe dam at Teton. What you couldn't do is build a cheap dam at Teton,” Gee said.
To learn more about Nathaniel Gee, go to nathanielkgee.com.
His book “Failure and Fortitude: How Faith, Politics and Power Shaped the Teton Dam Disaster,” can be found at Cedar Fort, Amazon, Deseret Book, Walmart and Barnes and Noble.