Lawrence County residents express concern over the uncertain future of the Williams Dam

LAWRENCE COUNTY, Ind. — A historic dam’s future is uncertain and thousands of people are advocating for it to stay. 

The Williams Dam in Lawrence County is now more than 100 years old and is starting to show its age. Experts said it’s in need of some major repairs, which will be costly.

“The dam is needing repairs,” said Dough Nusbaum with the Indiana DNR. “There is no grant money out there or anything to repair dams but there is money to modify or remove dams. This dam currently needs work done and it felt at this time would be a good time to conduct this study to see what alternatives we may have and what we can do with it now.”

That feasibility study in collaboration with SWCA Environmental Consultants is still ongoing. It is looking at safety impacts, impacts on river water levels, impacts on groundwater wells and public intake, stream sediment characterization, impacts on aquatic passage, impacts on habitat and wildlife, dewatering and geomorphic response, and finally, impacts on recreation and economics.

Right now, there are three options: 

• No action
• Full removal of the dam
• Partial removal of the dam

But for many people, even hearing the possibility of the dam being partially removed is unimaginable.

“I have lived there my entire life as well as my entire family. We grew up fishing, swimming, boating, and enjoying the recreation of Williams Dam,” said Amy Amstutz White, who runs a bait shop near the dam. “I think about all of the people that have memories there. The people that boat, fish, camp, the kids that spent their days with their dads learning to fish and those are now parents taking their kids to fish and when I think about that disappearing, it just makes me really sad.”

White started a petition that has since gained a lot of traction.

“We have had over 10,000 signatures [on paper] and over 1,000 signatures online on a petition site,” she said. “There are people from all over Indiana and not just Indiana, people come from all different states and they sign this petition and nobody wants to see it go.”

Before a decision can be made, there is still a lot more research that needs to be done as experts assess both the pros and cons of removing the dam.

They said some of the pros include improved water quality and alleviating safety concerns. In its lifetime, the dam has recorded eight deaths. The most recent deaths happened in 2020.

However, one of the cons is how the area is enjoyed recreationally. One of the most popular things to do here is fish and if the dam comes down, it will make fishing a lot more difficult.

“It’s a popular fishing area,” Nusbaum said. “They do stack up so they would lose that aspect of having the dam there. You wouldn’t have fish stacked up there. It wouldn’t be easy to catch fish.”

“[They] brought up the fact there were songbirds and all kinds of things that would come back to the river, that’s fine but the people in this room aren’t watching birds they are using the river for fishing and other recreational activities,” said Gary Earl, a Lawrence County resident.

“I hope my 7-year-old gets to see it like I have seen it,” White said. “He says, ‘Mom, I just learned to swim. I just learned to fish. I don’t want them taking it away.’”

There are also fears about what will be done with the water intake.

“The river has always had an ample water supply and the city of Bedford has wells and there are wells in the county but the wells in the county are not enough to take care of the water supply that the thirsty people of the city of Bedford need,” Earl said. “If the dam comes down, that water demand will go high.”

Tuesday night marked the second of three public meetings. Experts said there is still a long way to go before a final decision is made, but they are encouraging the public to continue to speak up as the study continues.

“Nothing has been decided,” Nusbaum said. “Please keep an open mind as we move through this study and come out to the third meeting and voice your opinion because that’s the only way we are going to know [how people feel].”

The next meeting will be sometime this summer.