CASHTON, Wis. — The first of 23 at-risk dams in southwest Wisconsin, the 70-year-old Pilot Mlsna dam. has been removed. The dam, as well as others identified for demotion, are in the West Fork Kickapoo and Coon Creek watersheds. They had been deemed dangerous by the U.S. Natural Resource Conservation Service. The Kickapoo watershed is mostly in Vernon County but has headwaters in La Crosse and Monroe counties. The Mlsna Dam, southwest of Cashton, cost $370,000 to remove. Federal investigators found that all the dams they earmarked for removal had been built on geologically porous sandstone 50 to 70 years ago and were prone to collapse. Whether funds to remove the other dams have survived current Trump budget cuts is unknown, said Vernon County conservationist David Hettenbach. All the dams, he said, are serious safety threats. “The loss of life can be greater when you have a dam break and giant wall of water,” Hettenbach said. “With the dams gone, the water would come up slowly and go down slowly ”
Kickapoo watershed. Some 800 square miles drain into the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers.