MILL SPRING, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Three high-hazard dams in Western North Carolina will receive more than $3.4 million for repairs after they were damaged by Tropical Storm Helene, state environmental officials announced Thursday.
The latest round of grants from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality includes more than $1.3 million for Turner Shoals Dam in Polk County, more than $1.2 million for Beech Lake Dam near Hendersonville and more than $840,000 for Ashe Lake Dam northeast of Boone.
All three are classified by the state as high-hazard dams, a designation that means a failure would likely result in loss of life or significant damage to homes, businesses, major roads or utilities downstream.
The grants are the second round of state funding for high-hazard dams damaged when Tropical Storm Helene swept through Western North Carolina in September 2024.
“Dam safety is a matter of life and death,” DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson said in announcing the grants at Turner Shoals Dam in Mill Spring. “Today’s DEQ grants to repair three dams damaged by Helene will help ensure that people and property are protected during future floods.”
Turner Shoals Dam will receive funding to repair its access road and areas eroded around its hydroelectric station. DEQ said the work is intended to improve the dam’s stability during future storms.
Helene’s flooding prompted a widespread review of dams across the North Carolina mountains. The Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources inspected more than 400 dams after the storm and identified about 40 that had been damaged. Of those, 36 were classified as high hazard.
Damage ranged from relatively minor erosion to complete dam failures caused by floodwaters overtopping structures, according to DEQ.
The state awarded $6.6 million earlier this year to address damage at six other high-hazard dams in Western North Carolina.
Combined, the two rounds of grants provide about $10 million for repairs to nine high-hazard dams damaged during Helene.