Expert panel dives into Teton Dam’s failure at CEI’s ‘Flood 50’ commemoration
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – Experts took a deep dive into the failure of the Teton Dam Wednesday during a panel commemorating the 50th anniversary of the disaster at College of Eastern Idaho.
"The dam collapsed at 11:15 a.m., and 80 billion gallons of water rushed to the valley floor," said George Mason University History Ph.D. Student Rachel Bodily Birch. "By 8 p.m., the reservoir was empty."
Three historians, a dam safety engineer and a geologist shared the stage and responded to questions from the audience.
"Before its failure, the dam befuddled federal engineering bureaucracies, shaped political careers in Boise and Washington, D.C., and challenged sacrosanct beliefs regarding the state's water resources and environment,” said New Mexico State University Associate Professor Dylan McDonald.
The panel provided insightful analysis of the flood’s impact on local lives and the political and geologic factors that led to the dam’s collapse.
"The Teton Dam is fed by the Teton River. Depending on your source, it's about 60 to 80 miles long," said College of Eastern Idaho Geology Instructor L.J. Krumenacker. "Generally it has around 100 to 800 cubic feet per second discharge – depending on the season and the water year. With the flood itself, you had 11,000 cubic feet per second."
Dam safety engineer Nathaniel Gee emphasized the human toll of the flood, sharing the story of David Benson, the first of eleven deaths tied to the disaster.
Benson and his friend Daryl Griggs were fishing near the base of the dam when they were swept up in a massive wall of water.
Benson perished, but his friend survived.
Others were more fortunate.
“Only our garage got destroyed," said College of Eastern Idaho Dean of Art, STEM and Transfers Jacob Haeberle. "The house was fine, but we did find our car under two pickups a couple days later. I think this is such a seminal memory for everyone. I think that we're still dealing with some trauma from this event.”
Southern New Hampshire University Adjunct History Instructor LauriAnn Deaver wrote her master's thesis on "Dam Mormons: Responding to the 1976 Teton Dam Disaster in the 'Lord's Way.'"
More than 5,000 volunteers pitched in after the flood.
Deaver said that leadership from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints coordinated relief efforts, encouraging residents to roll up their sleeves and rebuild.
"What really struck me was just this ability for all of these [federal] agencies that came in after the dam collapsed and their ability to work with the population and the community that was here," Deaver said.
Fifty years later, as Idaho politicians debate whether or not to to rebuild the Teton Dam, one dam safety engineer says it would be an expensive proposition.
"No matter how you look at it, to deal with the geology, to deal with it correctly, you have to remove out that fractured geology, because no matter what dam they choose to build, you have to put it on a good foundation," said Nathaniel Gee, Ph.D., a dam safety engineer who has worked for 12 years for the Bureau of Reclamation. "We're no longer talking about the $58 million it was to build. We're not in that realm. We're probably in the billions to rebuild this dam."
"Is it worth it?" he added. "I haven't done that analysis."
For the full story and investigation, tune in to Local News 8's 30-minute documentary on the flood – "Teton Dam: The Failure and the Future."
It airs Friday at 9:25 PM on FOX and 10 PM on CBS.
Editor's note: The name of the victim killed in the Teton was mistyped and has been fixed.
