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Civil Works Law


The world of administrative law offers many specializations, including, as one Ohio community is discovering, civil works law.

Hundreds of homes in Buckeye Lake were built on the backside of an earthen dam, as the Columbus Dispatch reports, leading the US Army Corps of Engineers to conclude the dam is at risk of “catastrophic damage.” 

Civil works law includes both federal and state matters, further complicating the legal framework.   Situations like this potential dam failure, involve many issues, from fiscal law and government contracting to environmental law.  Both the Corps and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), the dam’s owner, offer dam safety programs.  To explore dam safety in particular, you might examine both the Corps and ODNR websites.  

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