March 19, 2023
BREACH
Paul Anders walked over to the steam valve in the boiler room and visually inspected it. He then turned it counterclockwise and back, which helped maintain its functionality. Paul had worked at the NMC Hydroelectric dam for the last fifteen years, where he had been doing monthly inspections of valves and gauges, a monotonous job.
Suddenly, the site’s siren sounded, and Paul dropped his clipboard. The manual alarm triggered when the upper reservoir reached a dangerous water level. Paul had only heard the siren when it was manually tested every six months. He radioed his partner in the control room and asked, “Daniel, what is happening?”
Daniel replied, “I’m not sure. The icons on the monitor are all green. Get back here so we can figure this out.”
The alarm continued to sound as Paul returned to the control room. When he entered the control room, he saw that Daniel had the emergency operator’s manual opened on the desk. Paul looked at the monitor and saw that all the valves, gauges, and generator icons were green. He directed, “Keep looking in the manual. I will go to the upper reservoir and visually check the gauge.” Five minutes later, he arrived at the upper reservoir and saw the level gauge dangerously red. He ran to the upper reservoir and climbed the six flights of stairs to the observation tower.
Fear gripped him as he saw the water cresting at the top of the dam. The dam was not designed to contain water levels at that height. He radioed Dan and commanded, “Drop whatever you are doing and get out of that control room now!” Paul knew he had to go to the bottom reservoir and manually close the valves to the upper reservoir.
Usually, a dam has a spillway, but NMC, in violation of State and Federal safety regulations, continued to operate while constructing one. Years earlier, NMC had moved forward in construction, fully knowing the violation. Complying would have doubled their construction costs, so they chose to pay fines.
Paul reached the bottom reservoir and began manually turning the valves. It was too late. What he didn’t see was a seam that gave way. Suddenly, something akin to an explosion, caused by the concrete bursting, reached his ears. The force of 1.8 billion gallons of water caused water to shoot out two hundred feet from the face of the dam. The valve room door burst, immediately filling the room with water.