Credit J. E. Stimson / Wyoming State Archives
The Wyoming State Legislature has approved $24 million for water development. Some of that funding will go towards fixing the unsafe LaPrele dam near Douglas.
The dam was built in 1909. Brandon Gebhart, the director of the Wyoming Water Development Office, said they have found cracks along the structure.
Because of that, the dam can only safely store roughly half of its normal capacity. Gebhart said the structure needs to be either fixed or replaced. When they fail, they fail catastrophically. It s not just starts with a leak and the leak gets a little bigger and a little bigger and a little bigger, he said. It s believed that these types of dams, once failure occurs, then the entire dam is gone and the whole wall of water behind it is flowing through it.