Kentucky Fish and Wildlife officials got to work removing a low-head dam at Georgetown’s Great Crossing Park last week. It’s part of an effort to remove such dams statewide.
Its removal has been a process five years in the making, following environmental studies and public input.
Fish and Wildlife officials say low-head dams are a safety hazard. The Great Crossing dam has caused multiple drownings, including two in the past four years.
Fish and Wildlife Officer Matthew Hartley says most drownings he’s covered have been associated with low-head dams.
“I would say probably 90% of my drownings that I have worked in my career have been involved with low head dams, ranging from here at Great Crossing to Frankfort, the area I cover,” Hartley said.
Dams generate a significant amount of power, even at low water levels. That can make it disorienting for people who mistakenly get trapped in their currents, and it can be hard to find a way out. It also makes it difficult for first responders to make rescues.
“We’re obviously there on scene quick, but it's just such a danger for first responders to get in and then do anything,” Hartley said. “That is typically a day, two days later before we can actually do anything, when they get released from that low-head dam situation.”
Low-head dams can come in different shapes and sizes, but they’re usually around several feet tall and span the length of the waterway they’re built in. It’s often unclear who owns a dam, which can make removal difficult.
Mike Hardin is an assistant director for Fish and Wildlife’s Fisheries Division. He says it’s more common for larger dams to be identified and catalogued.
“Those are permitted, and we have pretty good inventory on those, but we have a lot less information on these low-head dams that usually don't require to be permitted, so they're not tracked,” Hardin said.
Many low-head dams are more than a century old and have since outlived their purpose.
Over the years, some ended up in the hands of state agencies, like Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. The Great Crossing dam is one of a few examples statewide.
Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Rich Storm says the agency wants to make Kentucky’s waterways safer for recreation.
“We've had a lot of near misses here where people nearly drowned, even recently, just weeks ago, and when that happens, there's tremendous support and a push to make something like this happen,” Storm said.
There are other benefits to removing these dams beyond safety. Michael Washburn of the Kentucky Waterways Alliance notes that such removals could also boost biodiversity.
“We'll see an increased diversity of fish coming in here that are more desirable than some of the fish that hang out around dams,” Washburn said. “Fish, aquatic wildlife, really like to have open and free-flowing waters, and this impedes them.”
Officials say it’s unknown just how many low-head dams are in Kentucky and in the nation. Researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah created the first nationwide database tracking low-head dams in 2023.
That team is led by Rollin Hotchkiss. He says they’ve tracked around 13,000 dams nationwide, but there are likely thousands more.
“It's not like most states have a list of low-head dams they can provide you on request. We just had to find them,” Hotchkiss said. “We did so using a lot of students and using Google Earth Pro as our primary tool.”
Hotchkiss says they’re working with federal agencies and local field teams to put the list together. It’s expected to be added to the National Inventory of Dams to help better protect people.
