Built for irrigation in 1884, Smith Reservoir in Colorado no longer can hold as much water as it once did.

To keep the dam from leaking, the water level at the suburban Denver reservoir is kept at least 2 feet below the level of the spillway — a critical safety precaution for the shopping center, preschool, assisted living facility and hundreds of homes now located in its potential inundation zone.

Improvements could be coming.

Smith Reservoir is among the first batch of dams nationally to get a slice of a new $10 million grant program run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for high ha...