Worker critically injured at Pinto Dam

PINTO DAM — A man suffered life-threatening injuries after a fall Monday morning at the Pinto Dam at the south end of Billy Clapp Lake, about 18 miles east of Ephrata.

According to the sheriff’s office, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation employee was working at the dam and apparently slipped on icy concrete and fell about 35 feet to the concrete below.

EMTs from Grant County Fire District 12 and American Medical Response paramedics rescued the man and brought him to Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake.

The sheriff’s office is withholding the man’s name until his family can be notified.

The state Department of Labor and Industries is investigating the incident. For more information, read Tuesday’s Columbia Basin Herald.

—Staff report