An early morning evacuation forced people out of their homes after a mining company found a problem with a levee.

That evacuation order has now been lifted, and people are being allowed back in their homes.

But overnight, the badger mining corporation in Jackson County found the problem, and emergency managers got to work taking people out of about a dozen homes nearby.

The levee in question is a 117 acre, shallow pond on Badger Mining Corporation's property.

The company and the sheriff's department don't know what caused the partial failure, but they're bringing in engineers to figure it out.

Badger mining says crews were working on the levee last week and workers discovered the problem during an inspection.

Trempealeau County Sheriff Richard Anderson says, “There is a concern, a concern for the community, we have taken measures to put in just in case something does happen.”

Emergency crews started pumping water out of the pond into another nearby pond at about 4 Thursday morning.

Badger Mining says the pumps are taking water out at a rate of several thousand gallons per minute.

The sheriffs department says the damaged levee is unstable, and they are asking people to stay out of that area.

Anderson says, “The immediate concern is for County W up there, several residents have been evacuated and asked to leave. It’s just kind of preventive measure at this time.”

The Jackson County Sheriff closed County Road W, a road that runs along the Trempealeau/ Jackson county line.

John Ross, the Emergency Management Coordinator from the Jackson County Sheriff’s office said, “We want to be as prepared as we can be for what may happen in the next few hours as far as weather and that. We also want to be as safe as we can for everybody involved, because that's our number one priority. “

The latest update from Thursday around 6 pm has emergency crews saying no property damage happened and the levee did not breach, however they will keep that portion of County Road W closed for now in the area around Burma and near bye roads.