In the wake of a child's drowning near a city-owned dam, Danville's interim city manager, Joe King, is looking into ways to make the Dan River dams safer -- starting with a report on all of the dams.  

“We are also doing preliminary assessments on what we may be able to do to remove some of the risks without removing the dams,” King said.

Serena McClain is an associate director at American Rivers, a conservation organization supporting river restoration. She says a dam can be removed withing a couple of years. There are federal and state grants available to help with dam removals, according to McClain. The grants require that removing the dam has a positive ecological impact -- even if the dam is unsafe. “There’s not really funding available out there to remove a dam because it’s not safe,” she said.

“Most of the dams that we help get funding for, 75% of them have safety concerns,” McClain said.

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