Teams from the Department of Natural Resources and the US Army Corps of Engineers performed damage assessment on 102 privately owned dams, and concluded that work needs to be carried out at three dams in Johnson county, three in Morgan county and one in Owen county.
Of the dams needing work, Earlham Lake dam in Johnson county was found to have failed during floods, while the two other dams in the county, Prince's North Lake Dam and Roger Lake dam, had overtopped. Loudermilk dam and Lower Spring Lake Dam in Morgan county also experienced overtopping, while the remaining two dams - Fish Hatchery Lake dam in Morgan county and Bandee Lake dam in Owen county - were found to be inadequate to handle future flood events.
The Department of Natural Resources has statutory authority to regulate dams in Indiana - although it only regulates structures that meet one of three criteria: the drainage area above the dam is greater than 1 square mile; the dam embankment is greater than 20 feet (6m) high; or the dam impounds more than 100 acre feet (123,344m3) of water. These dams fall into the three hazard categories - low, significant and high.
There are about 600 low hazard dams in Indiana, about 250 in the significant category and around 250 in the high category.
