Warrick County surveyor warns Ayrshire slurry dam poses flood and public-safety risk; agencies have not responded

Warrick County Surveyor Dennis (last name not specified) told the commissioners the Ayrshire Mine slurry dam is "poorly constructed and unstable, threatening the safety of Warrick and neighboring counties, people, infrastructure, and economies." He urged the county to press state and federal agencies for help, saying he has documented what he sees in frequent field inspections and has taken visiting officials to the site.

Dennis described the structure as a high-hazard Class C dam containing an estimated 22,000,000 cubic yards of fine coal slurry and refuse. He said the mass of material is forcing the creek bank outward, that trees and root wads have been pushed into the channel and that earlier repairs had been required. "I'm seeing signs of impending failure," he said, adding he has taken "32 people of legitimate stature and concern" on tours of the site.

Why it matters: Dennis said if the dam failed the primary damage would be long-duration flooding because Pigeon Creek and connected ditches are clogged with coal fines and would be unable to carry runoff. He listed downstream ditches and creeks — including Willow Pond Ditch, Howard Williams Ditch and other channels that serve Newburgh and Evansville neighborhoods — as areas that would be blocked or overloaded if the creek ceased to function.

Dennis said he has pursued multiple channels of assistance since January 2025: calls, letters and meetings with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Office of Surface Mining, the Mining Safety and Health Administration, the Department of Homeland Security and congressional offices. He told the board he has not received inspection records he requested from IDNR and that, in his view, agency staff have recently been instructed not to communicate with him about the Ayrshire site.

County staff and outside engineers discussed options but did not identify a regulatory path to force removal during the meeting. Jim Morley Jr., a project engineer who attended, offered a technical option: a dam-breach modeling study to map downstream inundation under different scenarios. Morley said such models commonly include a "rainy-day breach" and a "dry-weather breach" and can show how fast and where flows would spread, noting that the results depend heavily on river stage at the time of a breach.

The board did not take formal action on removal during the meeting. Commissioners and staff said the decision to take further formal steps would rest with the county commissioners and that contingency planning — including potential temporary diversion or mass pumping at known chokepoints — is already under informal discussion. Dennis said he continues to collect photographs, drone footage and movement measurements at multiple transects of the dam.

Ending: Commissioners did not approve a formal directive at this meeting; staff and the surveyor said they will continue to press for data and discuss next steps with state and federal contacts. Dennis asked the board to consider methods to compel agency cooperation; the board noted the matter will be considered for any future formal action or requests to state officials.