The ‘drowning machine’: Aging ‘low-head’ dams dot Kentucky and the US, killing hundreds
Sarah Hume For the Courier Journal Holbert’s death was one of the hundreds of cases of Americans who have died after getting sucked into a “low-head” dam, a style used in the late 1800s to power mills and distilleries.More than 10,000 were built around the nation and remain in place. They are not very tall, which gives them their name, reach from bank to bank and can be difficult to see from upstream. Many are no longer needed, but they…
