Tennessee, Kentucky Residents Prepare for Possible Break in Wolf Creek Dam

People awake each morning with a feeling of contentment as they lie in their nice warm beds. However, for residents in the flood plain of the Wolf Creek Dam, lately those nights have not been as secure. Residents and governments in areas that lie within the flood plain have known since the beginning of the year that they needed to have emergency plans in place should the unimaginable happen, and the dam actually break. There are maps of the flood plain, which encompasses areas in Kentucky and Tennessee readily available on the Internet, at local libraries, and even through some government municipalities. While the accessibility of the flood plain maps can allow residents of the area to know before hand if their work or homes are within the area that could be flooded, it does little to ease concerns of whether or not local and state governments would be prepared to respond if such an emergency did occur.

The Wolf Creek Dam has had reported issues with seepage since 1968. These problems were addressed in the time frame of 1968 to 1970 by grouting the seepage channels, then again in 1975 through 1979 by forming a seepage cut off wall. However, in January of 2007 the dam was once again added to the list of those with a high risk of failure. Once again the problem was due to seepage. It seems that the seepage has created new inlets in and around the current cut off wall. Monies have been allocated and construction begun on a grout curtain and new cut off wall constructed with better materials and newer technologies, so that hopefully the issue of seepage at the dam does not come up again in the next 10 to 15 years.