Repair plan coming for Louisville dam that suffered March breach

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The owner of a Louisville dam that risked failing last month has kept water levels below the breached area and is on track to meet a state deadline to submit a repair plan, an official said Tuesday.

The Silver Crystal Dam at South Park Country Club near Fairdale began seeping water around March 8, prompting state authorities to warn of its possible failure the next day. Crews then pumped out enough water to cancel a flood advisory.

A violation notice issued March 22 by the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection found that the country club previously did “unauthorized construction” to add a new spillway and failed to follow state law when it didn’t submit construction plans and get a permit and written approval.

State regulators also ordered the club to file a plan addressing the structural issues by May 31, according to documents obtained in a public records request. The club is working with several engineering firms on that plan and expects to meet the deadline, club general manager David Huffman told WDRB News.

Huffman said he believes it will be “fairly simple” to fix the hole that developed on the dam’s top edge by filling it with soil and adding a grass cover.

“We think it's just a one-off problem because we think the culprit was an old animal hole and it took years and years and years of this -- I'll say pressure -- to eventually do this,” Huffman said. “But that's what we believe has happened.”

Kentucky Division of Water inspectors noticed “unapproved excavation and construction” of a spillway, which carries water away from the dam, when they were on site, according to a March 13 letter from division director Carey Johnson.

Huffman said that work stemmed from heavy rains in January that led to the bottom of the dam not draining properly. The club then hired a contractor to address the drainage issue, which resulted in the unapproved work, he said.

The state-required plan calls on the club to remove unauthorized parts of the dam, including the spillway, build a new “drawdown” structure to lower water levels and remove large trees on one side of the dam.

The dam, which Huffman said dates to the 1880s, is classified as a “significant hazard,” meaning property damage is likely if the structure fails. It had been rated in "fair" condition during its last scheduled inspection before the March incident, in April 2021.