U.S. Corps of Engineers: Dam remains halted in Edmonson County until solution is found

EDMONSON COUNTY, Ky. (WBKO) - A few months ago, WBKO News told you the Edmonson County Water District voiced their concerns to the U.S. Corps of Engineers over the low water levels and the impact it would have on their supply.

After surveying the dam and the area, the removal was halted while the corps took samples to examine.

Chris Wernick, the project manager with the Corps Engineers, says while the data did not show a significant change in the model there are still concerns.

“When the data was incorporated into the model, there wasn’t really any significant change in the model, the model still predicts that once the dam is completely out, under typical water conditions, Edmonson County will still be able to pull water from their bottom intake. There’s still uncertainty within the model and within the data that we have, and it’s at those nontypical water events or low water, where, you know, the model does kind of show that there may be a chance for them not to be able to pull water from there with their current system,” says Wernick.

The Corps of Engineers says the dam remains halted until there’s a solution, that will not impact water levels.

They also add that they’re working with The Nature Conservancy.

“TNC has brought on a third-party engineering consultant Stantec. They’re going to look at short term solutions versus long term solutions. Now they’re gonna bring up the engineering and what that would look like. So let’s have some costs associated with that just so we know kind of what that looks like. What our plan would be is once we have you know, several or a list of these ideas, we will then coordinate work with Edmonson County, let them know what, what the costs are, what we can do what everyone can do, you know, TNC, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and so forth and then work with them until we can come up with a solution that works for everyone,” adds Wernick.

Wernick also says they’re going to do what they can to ensure that Edmonson County has water once that dam comes out.

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