Horlick Dam

April of 2024, Racine County Board unanimously approved removal of this dam. While USACE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) timeline suggests the plan was to be finalized and initiated in 2025, with completion (including landscaping and revegetation or formerly inundated areas) by Spring of 2027, the county has been dragging their feet and has not yet (to our awareness) put this out for bids. Until then ....

In general, running dams is highly discouraged. Many low-head dams are 'killing machines' at a wide variety of water levels. This dam is a notable exception. A rounded lip, a sloping (not vertical) face, and a smooth concave curve into a horizontal 'kicker' combine to make this as 'safe' as any dam can be. So, yes, the dam has been run numerous times.

At levels below 300 cfs or so, it is boat abuse (grinding down cement on a thin sheet of water). From maybe 300 to 800, it's a quick smooth slip down the face. Above 800 or 1000 cfs, the left half of the dam develops a nasty hydraulic, but the right half still sheets away quite reasonably. Highest presently known run is about 1500 cfs, Christmas day, 2006, no less! Above that, things really look scary (but it probably 'still goes', if you're gutsy enough to send it!).

Again, not encouraging anyone to run it, but the question comes up occasionally.

It is important to note that there is shallow bedrock at the base of the dam, and rocky rubble about halfway down toward the next feature ('Malted Milk'). If you flip at the base of the dam, you are likely to have trouble rolling as you are raked across all this bedrock and rocky debris.

Some other dam trivia: The 'official' height of the dam is listed as 12'. The crest (lip) of the dam is 180' across. It creates a pond of 60 acres, normally holding just 160 acre-feet of water. Paddlers have asked about the possibility of releases from the dam to create boating opportunities. First, the dam does not contain a 'releasable' gate, so it's just not possible without rebuild or major modification of the dam. Second, discounting whatever natural inflow is occurring (which could replenish the pond or extend release times), the millpond would be completely drained in: 6.4 hours@300cfs, or 3.2 hours@600cfs, or just 1.6 hours@1200cfs. Obviously, such a wide variation in pond height would not be allowed due to impact on habitat and water quality above and below the dam. (Even though any such release levels would be well-within seasonal flows, thus not causing any undue effects downstream, and the relatively small impoundment would be replenished within a day at most normal/usual flows, thereby having minimal short-lived effect upstream!)

Some folks have also concocted fantasies about pumping water from the quarry pond to make a 'release' (especially since most years they pump water from the quarry to bring it's water level down from spring highs). The quarry has just 18 acres of surface. Pumping 500 cfs from the quarry (which would take far more massive pumps than are currently used), would drop quarry water level a foot every 26 minutes (even more as the lake went down, since the surface area would diminish as well). A four hour 'pumped release' of 500 cfs would drop the quarry level by over 10'. This would not be tolerated as it would ruin use of the quarry (for swimming and for fishing from the shore-attached floating pier).