The Lake of the Ozarks stretches for more than 54,000 acres in southern Missouri. The Bagnell Dam, which created the lake and several new waterways in 1931, holds back 600 billion gallons of water from the Osage River. Bagnell is the largest privately funded dam in the U.S. This hydroelectric dam’s eight waterwheel turbines generate 722,000-MWh of renewable electricity per year, so the uninterrupted operation of it matters to more than just Jason Bateman and Laura Linney’s Netflix family in the series “Ozark.”
With high-profile failures such as the service spillway collapse at California’s Oroville Dam fresh in the public’s mind, the 2,453-ft-long, 148-ft-tall gravity dam’s owner, Ameren Missouri, has committed to a $52-million stabilization project that will see 67 post-tension anchors added to Bagnell Dam along with 17,000 cu yd of new concrete.