This article is by Bella Lindauer, Gailon Totheroh, Michael Westendorf, and Mark Johnston.
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June 10, 2020
Midland County Administrator Bridgette Gransden says that when Jenifier Boyer walked into the county’s Emergency Operations Center and said that the Edenville Dam had failed, that’s when she knew this flood would be different. Ms. Boyer is the county’s Emergency Management Coordinator.
“When Jennifer came into the EOC and said the dam failed,” Ms. Gransden said. “To me that was like, ‘OK this is something we’ve never experienced before. We’ve planned for it, but we’ve never experienced it before.”
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The Edenville Dam in Gladwin County failed at about 5:45 p.m. on May 19, after heavy rains and flash flooding throughout the state. A little over an hour later, at 6:50 p.m., Sanford Dam also failed causing public closures and evacuations for thousands of Midland County residents.
The rushing waters caused the Tittabawassee River to flood in Midland, shattering the previous record set in 1986. In the end, the river crested at 35.05 feet.
The Edenville Dam was the second in a series of four dams built along the Tittabawassee and the only one that was located on the county line between Midland and Gladwin. Secord and Smallwood dams are north of Edenville. All four dams were completed in 1924, for the purpose of water power development to generate electricity.
The Edenville dam was built at the confluence of the Tittabawassee and Tobacco rivers, which forms what used to be Wixom Lake. It is 54 feet tall and 6,200 feet long and is considered as an earthen embankment dam, which is made by compacting layers of material. The dams also have a foundation wall that is embedded into the rock below the dam to prevent water from flowing beneath it, while above that, the remaining structure is built from materials from the earth.
Each of the four dams contain a controlled spillway structure, an emergency earthen spillway, and the main earthen dam. The Edenville and Sanford dams also contain a power generation structure. Embankment dams are vulnerable to overflow of water eroding the dam structure, so each one must be provided with a spillway that can release water from the reservoir behind it if the water becomes too high. Each section of the Edenville dam consists of a concrete spillway and earthen embankments that extend from either side of the spillway to the ground.
For many years, all four dams were owned and operated by Wolverine Power Corporation, but in 2003, the company found itself in chapter 11 bankruptcy. At that time, Wolverine had pledged all of its property, interest, assets, and its contracts with Consumers Energy as collateral to Vancouver, British Columbian engineering and consulting company, Synex Energy Resources.
Wolverine Power Corp. defaulted on the loan and Synex foreclosed on all four dams, and other properties, later that year. Wolverine Power was sold to a Synex subsidiary called Synex Michigan LLC.
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Boyce Hydro Power LLC purchased the interests of Synex Michigan and was renamed Boyce Hydro Power on July 12, 2007. Boyce Hydro has owned and operated all four dams along the Tittabawassee River since and the company has had its fair share of issues. In reports from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE, pronounced “eagle”), the company received several violations starting in September 2010, that continued up until recent times.
Boyce Hydro’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license was terminated for the Edenville dam due to “longstanding failure to increase the project’s spillways capacity to safely pass probable maximum flood flows, as well as failure to comply with its license,” according to the Midland County Hazard Mitigation Plan, which FERC approved in January 2019. The plan is updated every five years and also states that the Edenville dam would be under the oversight of the State of Michigan.
As of 2020, three of the four dams-Secord, Smallwood, and Sanford-generates electricity and are regulated by the FERC, but the Edenville dam has not produced hydroelectricity since the licensing was revoked.
As a retired dam operator of the six-hydroelectric dams owned by Consumers, along the AuSable River, Greg Purtell, from Hale, explained that dams that are not in production-which are known as “off-line”-do not need much management. He said that water levels in the lake or reservoir are mostly lowered upon production cessation. They are usually only lowered again after significant rainfall.
Mr. Purtell also told the City Paper that dams are set up and measured using trigonometry, in which water is measured by cubic feet per second in order to know how many megawatts of electricity will be produced.
“The higher the water, the more energy is created,” he said. “A dam that is not in production really does not have a need for high water levels.”
The Association of State Dam Officials claim that the ability to perform reservoir drawdowns quickly and safely can be crucial to the protection and preservation of a dam.
Mr.Purtell went on to explain the drawdown process of dams, “The drawdown usually happens at the beginning of the Fall and levels are typically replenished in the Spring, but the exact time varies because it is calculated based on the weather pattern that season. Everything gets recorded and calculated by engineers to determine how much a dam can handle, including erosion, saturation levels and weather patterns.”
Mr. Purtell said that FERC issues a license and determines the drawdown level, with input from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), but that the overall responsibility to do the drawdown is up to the owner and operators, following the guidelines designated for them.
In April 2014, a former Sanford Lake resident, Amanda Leaman-Ranes, had complained about the water levels in a review of Boyce Hydro on its Facebook page stating that, “They [the company] should drain the dams more to prevent flooding out the residents, or build a wall to protect homeowners from the flood plain.”
Ms. Leaman-Ranes told the City Paper that the flooding she experienced at her old residence, on West Railroad Street in Sanford, was due to overflow from the river that passes through that neighborhood, extending from the lake. It was the first time she had ever had to deal with such an upsetting ordeal and tragic loss of her and her family’s possessions.
“My neighbors and I agreed that they [Boyce Hydro] did not do a good job at preventing loss that year. I am certain that the flooding was due to the dam not lowering the water levels for anticipation of spring. We were very upset, and it added stress because my husband and I were planning our wedding at the time. We had to do our dishes in the bathtub. There is no way we should have flooded,” she said.
Ms. Leaman-Ranes said her home flooded again in 2017, and at that time, the lake was lowered.
“We sold that house about a year and a half ago, and now it is completely gone. I feel awful for what the new owner has to go through. None of us could even fathom that anything like this was ever possible,” she said regarding the house on Railroad St. being demolished in the recent flood.
Tim Holsworth, Vice President of the Sanford Lake Association (SLA), told the City Paper that the SLA was created to be a liaison for property owners on Sanford Lake. He has been with the organization for four years and has served as Vice President since Jan. The SLA was founded in 1998.
“We advocate on their [the property owners] behalf,” he said. “We communicate things like weed control, lake drawdowns, legislative changes, and other items of interest, like meetings and other news.”
Mr. Purtell explained the purpose of winter drawdowns. The winter drawdown is for flood control, as minor flooding is nothing unusual, he said. Springtime means melting snow and rising water levels. Once that occurs, which is determined by water temperature on the lake, the levels are allowed back to “normal.” The set temperature technically determines the “when.”
“Normal level” means the level or levels of water in an inland lake that provide the most benefit to the public; that best protect public health, safety, and welfare; that best preserve the natural resources of the state; and that best preserve and protect the value of property around the lake. A normal level shall be measured and described as an elevation based on national geodetic vertical datum.
“Most are done to prevent flooding because of the unpredictability of precipitation and weather. If you left the lake at its normal level and it snowed 4 inches, then the water levels would be too high when the snow melts. Some drawdowns are also done in the winter for maintenance purposes, especially if the lake or pond is a recreational area with a lot of public usage,” he said.
In reports released by EGLE, in October of 2018, the Department of Environmental Quality safety staff met with Edenville dam owner, Lee Mueller, to perform a cursory inspection of the dam to identify critical deficiencies of the structure. They observed that water levels were a little over 4 feet below normal lake level, 13 months after the flood in 2017.
According to the Midland County Hazard Mitigation Plan from November 2018, the most vulnerable jurisdictions for dam failure are as follows, ranking highest to lowest: Edenville Township, Jerome Township, Village of Sanford, Lincoln Township, Homer Township, City of Midland, Midland Township, and Ingersoll Township.
In the same report, Edenville, Lincoln and Jerome Townships ranked dam failure as their number one concern for those areas in Midland County, with the Village of Sanford ranking it as number four and Warren Township ranking it as number five. Five out of the nineteen Townships in the county had legitimate concerns regarding dam failure. The inadequacies and lack of maintenance had been documented.
Mr. Holsworth said that the SLA does get fairly regular updates and status reports about the dams and lakes, as their board has two members that also serve on the Four Lakes Task Force(FLTF) board, but they do not work with either Boyce Hydro or the FLTF, other than to respond to requests or pass along their reports to members.
Midland’s Hazard Mitigation Plan also defines dam failure as the collapse or failure of an impoundment resulting in downstream flooding. Failure of a dam does not only occur during flood events, which may cause overtopping of a dam but can also result from poor operation, lack of maintenance and repair, and vandalism.
Given the Edenville dam’s age, inspections revealed that the dam did not meet state standards for its capacity to accommodate major flooding. FERC contacted Boyce Hydro regarding the issue, notifying them that it needed increased capacity in its spillways. These repairs could amount to several million dollars. Boyce claimed they lacked appropriate funds for the repairs.
Reports also state that the State later denied the company’s request to lower the levels of the lake in the Fall of 2019, even with the knowledge that the structure failed capacity standards, both by the EGLE and FERC. State and county officials have expressed frustration that current laws prevented them from actually doing more to regulate the dams because of their private ownership.
Throughout those two years, FLTF had plans to do repairs and maintenance on the dams, using money they would receive from water-front homeowners who pay $350 in additional property taxes, known as the Special Assessment District (SAD). Most of the homeowners with private access and exclusivity made up SAD.
FLTF stated, “Properties within the SAD share financial responsibility to acquire, repair, improve, operate and maintain the dams to be compliant with the State of Michigan dam safety standards.
In April, FLTF had drafted up a Secord Dam Preliminary design and Engineering Report and sent it in to the FERC for approval to build a new auxiliary spillway. The spillway was being considered to be put on the Eastern side of the dam. They claimed it would activate after the existing flood gates are open and water flow exceeds capacity of current flood gate capacity. It is unknown if they had plans to do repairs on Edenville dam.
Over the course of three days, what was predicted to be several inches of precipitation, had turned into 5 to 7 inches of accumulation, which caused Edenville dam so much distress that it eventually breached.
When asked about his perspective regarding the breach, with his experience, Mr.Purtell told the City Paper, “There was probably nothing wrong with the dam structure itself, it was probably the dike. Dikes only have water on one side because it physically blocks the water and creates the reservoir. Dams have water on both sides. Dikes are used to prevent flooding so if the dike breaks, or is damaged, it will cause flooding.”
He also said that there is more reason for concern when there is more saturation in the land surrounding the dam and the higher the water level is because it adds increased resistance, which makes it harder for the dam to push the water through. He said this especially happens when there is heavy rainfall, which the area did have prior to the breach.
Similar to Mr. Purtell’s statements about what may have happened at Edenville, reports say that the eastern earthen dike was saturated by the record levels of rainfall over a two-day period, which resulted in washing away over 900 feet of the dike. The emergency spillways were unable to sustain and keep up with the continuous and cumulative water flow from the precipitation flowing into and filling the Tittabawassee River.
If water overwhelms a dam and overflows to the top, it has the potential to create massive erosion on the structure, causing it to fail. There is an emergency spillway, some call it a fuse plug, which is lower than the dam’s regular spillway structure and designed to fall, preventing water from making it to the top to overflow. It is very small however, and used to regulate the flow of the water, but is not capable of maintaining or regulating flood levels after a certain point. Especially once the water reaches over the top of the structure.
Richard McGibbon, Vice President of the Wixom Lake Association, told the City Paper, that the four lakes were not “flood-controlled lakes.”
“When the Edenville dam lost its ability to pass the water through the turbines, it could only release water through the spillways, which slows the ability to draw down water accumulation. Because of the historic level of water, the dams could not keep up,” he said.
“The consequence of living in a river valley is that we must deal with river floods at times, this however would be unprecedented. Whereas the flood from 1986 was considered a 100-year flood, what we are looking at is an event that is equivalent to a 500-year flood, which is extremely rare, extremely catastrophic and extremely dangerous,” said Midland City Manager, C. Bradley Kaye, during a press conference the night of the dam failures.
Mr. Kaye later walked back the ‘500-year flood’ comments which gained media traction across the state.
“The language is important here, and in honesty, we’ve been probably, including myself, a little loose with that,” he told the City Paper at another press conference.
“We in Midland have been using the term ‘500 year’ because what we said is that the water that came through the river corridor was the equivalent of a 500 year rainfall event, but it was not a 500 year rainfall event,” Mr. Kaye said. “It was the combination of the two, the water in the dams, behind the dams, the impoundments, combined with the water that fell over the entire watershed and then challenged through that area. So it will not come out that this was a 500 year rain event.”
Mr. Purtell said that these things are set in motion, long before they happen. He compared operating a dam to playing golf.
“You can keep trying to understand it and play, but you’ll never win,” he told the City Paper.
“You have to keep in mind that when you are looking at dam integrity and safety, you have to look at it like the domino effect,” he said. “When you have high water levels and are just skimming by, you have to calculate the distance between power plants. How far apart they are, if the reservoir is more of a lake or a pond, and how fast the water is flowing, are all factors to be considered.”
“Anytime you fail to adjust the water levels for an oncoming rain of several inches, you are just asking for trouble,” Mr. Holsworth told the City Paper.
Director of Environmental Policy at the Mackinac Center, Jason Hayes studies environmental and energy policy. He also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Northwood University, teaching Environmental Science, and as a policy advisor to the Heartland Institute on issues of energy and environmental policy.
“It is really unfortunate that this was in the midst of fixing the problem. 2020 seems to be that year where it all hits. If it had been three years later, some of this might have been averted,” Mr. Hayes told the City Paper.
EGLE and Boyce were equally responsible for the controversial back and forth, Mr. Hayes says, which was then brought to a head by the excessive rainfall.
“When EGLE first did an inspection of the Edenville dam, “ he told the City Paper, “this one page inspection report (which included pictures)-literally three paragraphs-says that the ‘cursory inspection’ showed the dam to be in ‘fair condition’ and used terms like efflorescence, cracking, spalling, and [iron] rebar showing.”
“Now they say they had “strong concerns” all along,” he added.
Mr. Purtell said that situations like this happen when structures such as dams are owned privately.
“If it is a federally owned dam, then you have a federal agency working together with another federal agency to operate and maintain, but when it’s a private owner working with a federal agency, that can be a bit more difficult,” he told the City Paper.
“When the FERC wanted something done,” Mr. Purcell told the City Paper, “they wanted it done their way and on their time. And if you do what they say, then you don’t have problems. The FERC does monthly dike inspections and annual inspections with the owner of the dam. They always made it clear that it’s safety first and production second.”
While the focus on the human impact has rightfully dominated flood discussions, the impact on the area’s flora and fauna looms large as well. Mr. Hayes lists some of the affected species.
The flood has drastically diminished any number of plants and creatures in and around the two former lakes. Fish are the obvious fatalities, with thousands of dead fish ending up on people’s properties and washing downstream.
Mr. Hayes says we should consider the impact on all kinds of other plants, animals, and environments that now have a limited habitat or no home at all. That would include: wetland areas, varieties of water fowl, red-wing blackbirds, cattails, sedges, fish such as panfish, small-mouth bass, walleye, and catfish, and even the insects. These creatures and plants have all developed and thrived over the decades of having the lakes as a resource.
Since the 1800s, wildlife and natural areas have been managed for human use (especially recreational), but in recent times much of the management has focused on nature for the sake of nature, according to Mr. Hayes. Human use takes a backseat.
That particularly applies to animals or plants designated as endangered. In the Endangered Species Act of 1973, “endangered means a species is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.”
The federal law would not normally apply to the lake areas because they are privately owned and not federal land. However the Michigan Endangered Species Law of 1994 extended rulings to private and public lands. This then involves extensive control by Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE, pronounced “eagle”).
The snuffbox mussel has been on the federal endangered list since 2012. Michigan automatically accepts federal designations. The snuffbox and more than a dozen other freshwater mussels have been known to be in the lake behind Edenville for some years. Mussels are two-shelled mollusks like clams.
After Boyce lowered the water level at Edenville in late 2019, EGLE and DNR wanted Boyce to raise the water back up for environmental reasons. In a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Dana Nessel on April 30, the state formalized that demand into a formal complaint.
The complaint justified raising the lake levels primarily based on the threat to the snuffbox mussel and its fellow mussels. Simply stated, mussels need water over them to survive. Lower water would clearly kill some of the mussels. The state’s lawsuit claimed that “thousands, if not millions” of mussels would die.
This compares with hundreds of thousands to millions of another mussels species dying in Appalachia. A government biologist estimated that number may have died from unknown causes in a 300-mile stretch of river over a recent three-year period, according to the Associated Press.
Because of the “low water kills mussels” connection, the state had threatened Boyce, before the formal complaint, with a $200 million fine. That is according to Boyce. But the company claims that the lower water enabled them to protect their employees’ safety in removing winter ice and the harmful effects of expanding ice to the structure. Boyce also claims the reduced water status would help keep spring rains from pushing the level too high.
According to the Four Lakes Task Force, the group had spent $300,000 on related repairs in conjunction with Boyce earlier in 2020. However Boyce has a decade-long history of making promises of safety and other repairs, asking for delays, and ultimately falling through on their commitments. Most of those occurred under the watch of FERC. EGLE cites infractions under the shorter term of their oversight.
The attorney general’s lawsuit raises questions about the emphasis on the snuffbox mussel—especially in the retrospective light of the flooding to come. The lawsuit extols the benefits of the endangered mollusk and kindred species in over a dozen ways.
Those attributes include the “provision of multiple ecosystem services;” as a food source for raccoons and lake sturgeon; providing habitat for crayfish, bugs, flies, and spiders; contributing to biological diversity; “a source of intellectual and scientific knowledge;” possible impact on “processes that moderate climate;” and even the freshwater mussels being “the most imperiled of any major group of animals.”
The lawsuit bemoans what the loss of the mussels could entail. For instance, harm to “agricultural, medicinal, and industrial development” and less control of “pests and diseases” might be around the corner.
Nothing in the attorney general’s complaint mentions the possible negative impact of flooding by raising the lake level. Mr. Hayes finds a sad irony that without the lakes, most of the mussels have died. He says the region now has an “ecosystem drastically altered or destroyed. We used to choose the humans, now we choose the animals.”
Ms. Nessel strongly disputes this narrative.
“The breach of the Edenville Dam is solely attributable to Boyce’s negligence. It is not the result of any action, or inaction, of the State of Michigan,” she said in a press conference announcing a new lawsuit against Boyce filed on June 9 in Ingham County Circuit Court, blaming the flood on the Edenville Dam’s owner.
“The state’s lawsuit was about Boyce’s dropping water levels in the winter, in 2018, and also 2019, causing harm to Wixom and Sanford Lakes because it did not want to pay for winter maintenance on the dam. The only thing the two issues have in common is that Boyce, yet again, is prioritizing its own profits over the safety of nearby property owners,” Ms. Nessel said.
Ms. Nessel pushes back on the notion that the mussel lawsuit had anything to do with the dam failures and flood.
“Boyce never indicated it could not safely maintain those lake levels in the spring and always planned to do just exactly what it did: which was raise the lake to those levels, in the spring of 2020, and thus, by orders of those courts, Boyce was required to maintain a certain lake level. The State did not try, or try to compel Boyce to do anything otherwise.”
“The suggestion that I care more about mussels than I do about people is absolutely false, and in my opinion, defamatory,” Ms. Nessel said. “This false dichotomy was created simply so that my political opponents could coin what I believe is a very inane catch phrase apparently because ‘Dangerous Dana’ just wasn’t working for them anymore.”
With the enormous personal toll for thousands, the losses in the millions, the untold stress to families, looming insurance shortfalls, and the environmental wasteland, mid-Michigan and even the U.S. House of Representatives want to know what exactly happened. First into the fray was the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC, “furk”). The agency oversaw the Edenville Dam until 2018 when Boyce’s repeated violations prompted a license revocation.
FERC had asked the previous owner, Wolverine Energy, to increase the spillway capacity to keep the dam from failure in a worst case scenario. This key complaint was passed on to Boyce as soon as the company gained ownership in 2004. In their final order, FERC listed 14 incidents of delay on the spillway from then into 2017.
Other offenses cited by FERC were unauthorized dam repairs and earth-moving activities as well as failure to provide an “adequate” Public Safety Plan. Three other regulatory breaches entailed “unduly restricting public access to project facilities,” not constructing and maintaining recreation facilities, and not properly monitoring water quality.
Immediately following the tragedy, FERC asked Boyce to complete an independent study employing experts in hydraulics and hydrology; geotechnical engineering; structural engineering; reservoir operations; emergency action planning; and organizational/human factors. At this early stage, there is no word on whether this will ensue.
One week after the flood, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said during a press conference held at Meridian Elementary School that she had sent a letter to EGLE directing the agency to investigate the dam failures.
Ms. Whitmer cast aside suggestions to establish an independent investigation, since EGLE is a defendant in one of the class-action lawsuits filed because of the flood event.
“What we wanted to do was follow the procedure that would ordinarily be followed,” she said. “We have to go to the agency that has the expertise.”
Ms. Whitmer said that there are “very few” who are able to conduct this type of investigation.
“I’m confident that EGLE will do the kind of investigation that we all deserve and that we all expect, and I will ensure that that happens,” she said.
Ms. Whitmer steadfastly refuted allegations that the state is responsible for the dam failures due to raised water levels to protect freshwater mussels.
“So I think first and foremost, it’s important that we have this investigation done, that’s precisely why I’ve told people to get it started,” she said, “There are a lot of information out there that is not exactly accurate. One of which is the assumption that it was the State that said to raise the levels.”
Ms. Whitmer said that the raised lake levels was due to a Court order, echoing a statement earlier released by Attorney General Dana Nessel.
“Now of course, they have all sorts of ecological concerns, but it also was because of a Court order, is my understanding. And that’s precisely why it’s important that we get the facts, and we share the results of the investigations so that we can understand all of the different actions that—non-actions that contributed to the failing of these two dams.”
Critics of an EGLE investigation include leaders in the Michigan Republican Party. State Rep. Annette Glenn called on Ms. Whitmer to “reverse course and secure an independent investigation.”
Likewise, State Sen. Jim Stamas believes EGLE’s role in the dam failures precludes their performing the investigation. Beside accusations of vested interest, the Association of State Dam Safety Officials has a long list of requirements for an investigation. EGLE, with only two dam inspection experts and a lone supervisor, might find their expertise outmanned.
The Association’s “Dam Failure Investigation Guide” calls on assigned investigators to cover ten areas that involve causes, organizational and cultural factors, what went right, communicate with the public and the press, put forward design and construction practices, improve understanding of warning signs, reform dam safety regulation, and prevent future failures.
Mr. Hayes says he talked to several officials with EGLE, and they were adamant in stating that Boyce Hydro was absolutely at fault. He concludes, “It is reasonable that somebody else (besides EGLE) should do that investigation. There should be a third party.”
Ms. Whitmer seemed to cast blame of the dam failures on Boyce Hydro as well as Michigan’s former political leaders, during her first press conference at Meridian Elementary School.
“There are a lot of problems with the owner of this particular dam,” Ms. Whitmer said, “There are a lot of different pressures that comes from everything from the under investment in infrastructure in the State of Michigan for decades.”
Michigan Capitol Confidential reported that Ms. Whitmer previously proposed budget cuts on dam repairs.
Her first budget proposal in 2019 called for cutting the $350,000 allocated toward dam repairs down to $200,000. However, the Republican-controlled Michigan legislature rejected her proposal in the final legislation.
Michael Pitt, a Michigan attorney previously involved in the Flint water crisis, also argued in a Bridge Magazine op-ed that EGLE cannot be trusted to conduct an investigation. He says the agency failed in the Flint water crisis and now failed to take proper steps to prepare the dams for high water events when they had control since the beginning of 2018.
Mr. Pitt also favors appointing an independent task force to conduct an impartial investigation. Like FERC, he wants to see a full array of broad-based expertise that employs technical and human resources experts.
“The innocent people impacted by this tragedy deserve nothing less than a fair, impartial and credible evaluation of what went wrong and who should be held accountable,” Mr. Pitt wrote.
On June 1, the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent separate letters to the FERC and EGLE.
FERC regulated Edenville until the beginning of 2018 when the agency pulled the facility’s license. The other three Boyce hydro dams are still regulated by the agency: Secord, Smallwood, and Sanford. EGLE became the new regulators for Edenville only when FERC stripped the dam of federal licensing.
- What compliance and safety issues do the other three dams have?
- How could Edenville operate without compliance for over 10 years before the revocation?
- Upon revocation, did FERC work with Michigan to explain the Commission’s safety concerns?
- Nationally, what does FERC recommend for safety when dams lose their Federal licenses and are then under jurisdiction of a state?
- Likewise, the letter to Michigan’s EGLE wants responses about “the state’s actions and authorities to ensure dam safety:”
- What happened between January 2018 when Michigan found the dam in “fair” condition and five months ago when a state engineer found the dam short of safety standards?
- What communications the state had with FERC about Edenville’s noncompliance and safety shortfalls?
- What legal and regulatory actions the state took following the 2018 revocation?
- Explain the May 2020 state lawsuit (see section above) alleging environmental violations, public nuisance and unlawfully using Edenville outside the public interest—in Boyce’s lowering water levels in Lake Wixom (behind Edenville Dam).
While not a request for a formal study, the letters ask for important answers relevant to responsibility and causation. Both Democrats and Republicans on the Committee support the inquiry. The letters close with a short deadline, “Please provide a response to the above questions by Monday, June 15, 2020.”
While the House inquiry has a fixed time limit, no one yet knows how long studies may take. The public normally grants enough time for a study to be done properly but likely has little patience for drawn-out reports. Other timelines are more easily estimated.
However, given the checkered history and ultimate downfall of the Edenville and Sanford dams, citizens might expect that the future of the dams and the lakes would be virtually unknown. However uncertain the next months and years may be, there are routine steps that must take place.
Jason Edberg works as a senior vice president of NTH Consultants, a civil engineering firm based in Detroit. Civil engineering deals with all the big structural projects. He describes four steps in the process.
The first step is a stabilization phase. This step is necessary “so that the extent of the damage doesn’t spread,” Mr. Edberg says.
All areas that have been affected along the waterway need expert inspections; state and local officials need to order temporary fixes to limit further impact. This step takes six months to a year.
At the same time, those who have seawalls and reinforced embankments need to understand that those structures are no longer in balance without the water present. People tend to think of water as unsupportive by nature because it is liquid. However, just as water buoys up boats, it also provides a counter force to seawalls which steadies and helps support them. Mr. Edberg says there are four signs to look for:
- The wall starts to lean from the top.
- Cracks in the earth behind the seawall appear.
- Small sinkholes arise.
- The ground starts to settle behind the seawall.
If these signs appear, what should owners or property managers do? Edberg says the engineering thing to do is simple: pile up stone or dirt in front of the seawall. However, he suggests that there may be limits from homeowners’ associations or local and state laws on what can be done. Mr. Edberg hopes the tragic circumstances will inspire officials to be lenient toward owners protecting their lakeside structures. Owners also may wish to consult their insurance companies to see if these protective actions are covered.
The second step is a determination of restoration. Simultaneously with stabilization, somebody has to decide what to do and exactly what process is required to do that. This phase takes place simultaneously with phase one, requiring that first six months to a year.
This decision is not written in stone. In other words, the dams could be restored to some level of function—or alternately removed and abandoned. Edberg says private dams like these are more easily cancelled as the costs to the owners may be considered prohibitive.
If, as appears likely, the dams are rebuilt, then what’s called a legal lake level must be the standard. That is, state regulators will require a level to be set for the renewed lakes. Because of the landscape and pre-existing terrain and lake beds, there will likely not be much variability from previous lake levels. Recent court-mandated levels may well stand as is.
This leads to the third step: securing funding. The funds to complete whatever rebuilding or alterations are chosen can come from a variety of sources. Typically those include national sources such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the state of Michigan, charitable foundations, businesses, tax assessments, private individuals, and others who may step forward.
The Four Lakes Task Force that was in the process of purchasing the dams still wishes to make a deal, but the organization has abandoned the inclusion of a $300+ long-term yearly assessment for property owners on the lakes.
Obtaining funding is understandably the most common bottleneck in the four-step process. This phase generally takes up to a year to complete.
Mr. Bone, the Midland County Board of Commissioners Chairman, has said that the cost to rebuild the Edenville and Sanford dams and restore the lakes will be “at a minimum” $200 million.
“It’s going to be a very, very tough task. We’re all up to it. We’re gonna get it done,” Mr. Bone said. “Our plan is to rebuild. Our plan is to rebuild.”
Accuracy in estimating the actual costs, according to guidelines from the United States Society on Dams is crucial for funding, “History has proven that a greater probability exists that costs will increase rather than decrease. Risk analysis can provide management with an understanding of the probability of over-running (or under-running) a cost estimate.”
Funding acquisition also requires a clear, focused determination of restoration so that investors are confident they are getting optimum value for their money.
Mr. Bone has said that options officials are pursuing are “federal money, state money and private money.”
The fourth and final step is the design and build phase. Provided that funding is secured and sufficient, new dams can be designed and built. There are design engineering companies, construction companies, and companies that do both. Of the top 500 engineering-architecture-construction design firms in the U.S., there are eight Michigan companies primarily focused on engineering. Those figures come from Engineering News-Record’s 2019 list.
Sufficient funding helps speed up the process when there is a widespread public sense of urgency for the project. The wide time range for this step extends upward from two to four years.
The first two steps can take place at the same time. That means six to twelve months. The third step takes up to a year. As a money issue and considering the contentiousness of the stakeholders in the past, estimating around a year for step three may be realistic.
Michigan, with its industrial and engineering expertise, could mean the design-and-build phase would be nearer to two years than four years. Barring some unforeseen factor, the public is looking at a minimum of three years and possibly as long as six years or more to see a resolution of the waterway infrastructure.
The wild card in the timeline is the growing number of lawsuits. Mr. Hayes warns of a potential “hard slog” coming, “That’s what I’m expecting. If they have a judgment against Boyce and the State, then there will be a slowdown.”
Mr. Edberg says the sad reality is this tragedy may help.
“The silver lining in a situation like this is that it calls attention to the need for more infrastructure investment,” he told the City Paper.
In January, the Four Lakes Task Force (FLTF) signed a $9.4 million purchase agreement for the acquisition of Sanford, Smallwood, Wixom and Secord Lakes from the owners, Boyce Trusts. The sale was expected to take place over the next two years, with a final closing on all properties in January of 2022.
FLTF issued a statement on May 26 in response to the recent dam failures. The task force announced that the purchase from Boyce Hydro would not take place—at least as previously agreed.
“Recent events related to the Edenville Dam failure were terrible and tragic for our community,” FLTF stated. “All of us on the Four Lakes Task Force are devastated by our individual and collective losses, and our hearts go out to everyone who is impacted.”
The group had indicated that with their purchase of both dams and lakes, they would facilitate improvements and major repairs to each of the lakes’ nearly century-old dams. That was planned to take place over the next three years, a timeline that will likely have to be recalculated upwards.
Now, the Four Lakes Task Force plans to acquire the dams — with the help of the Counties — through a condemnation process.
Ron Hansen, engineer who also serves as the vice president of water-resources for the Spicer Group land surveyor, had said that the project’s “engineering and evaluation phase” would likely last until June of 2020. Some engineers suggest that is overly optimistic.
FLTF says they are “reassessing the path forward to acquire the Boyce property and rebuild our dams and lakes.” They are working with the counties, authorities and lake communities on determining the best course of action in working toward recovery.
The organization also wishes to seek other sources of funding, both public and private. The original plan was to assess property owners an annual fee. With so many property owners devastated, that idea is no longer viable.
“Four Lakes Task Force, as the delegated authority of the counties, is dedicated to returning these lakes to a recreational and natural resource gem of the region,” said Dave Kepler, president of the Four Lakes Task Force. “We will do this with a continued focus on public safety.”
According to Mr. Holsworth, the Sanford Lake Association Vice President, they have other hopes for the future of the dams and lakes.
“Our hope, which should be incredibly obvious, is for the dams to be rebuilt and the lakes to be restored. You have thousands of people affected here, and millions of property tax dollars in question,” he told the City Paper.
“The FLTF does not own them yet,” Mr. Holsworth added. “If they do purchase them, it will be to ensure the dams are viable for the future which has been their goal all along. The FLTF was created for the sole reason to purchase the dams, and bring them up to code for the residents of all the lakes. Unfortunately, they were not fast enough to avoid the devastation created when the dams failed. A failure, that was the result of several parties completely screwing up over the years. This was a manmade disaster, and the FLTF was at no fault here.”
While the Edenville dam breach did not result in any loss of life, apart from aquatic life, it did destroy the livelihoods of homeowners throughout the affected area. As people scurried to salvage what they could from their homes and hauled precious memories to the curbside for pick-up, many community members are wondering what the future will hold for the four lakes and dams that the task force was in the process of purchasing.
“Four Lakes Task Force, as the delegated authority of the counties, is dedicated to returning these lakes to a recreational and natural resource gem of the region,” Mr. Kepler said. “We will do this with a continued focus on public safety.”
Mr. Kepler told the City Paper that the failed dams were not made for flood control, they were made for hydroelectricity.
“These dams were not made for flood control, they were made for hydroelectric power, and one of the things we’re looking at is maybe a logical investment … made for flood control and not for hydro,” Mr. Kepler told the City Paper.