The state of Michigan is suffering from severe flooding, and one of the dams responsible has been a concern for a number of years.
According to Bridge Michigan, Gladwin County’s dam was cited for years due to safety violations and failing to remedy spillways that were integral in flooding prevention.
The owner of the dam, Boyce Hydro Power, LLC, was penalized by authorities who revoked their licenses in 2018 after the company “failed for many years to comply with significant license and safety requirements, notwithstanding having been given opportunities to come into compliance.”
The records and court reports exhibit that the failures of Boyce Hydro date back to 2004, including refusing to meet deadlines for repairing the Edenville Dam.
In 2017 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission included a statement in a federal lawsuit, raising concerns over the refusal of Boyce Hydro to increase “spillway capacity to address flood risk.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, the dam did fail on May 19, after heavy rainfall, which forced mid-Michigan residents to evacuate and increased the risk of more flooding from another dam.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said that she planned to announce a state of emergency, saying that the flooding was unlike anything that the state had witnessed before.
“I feel like I've said that a lot over the last number of weeks, but this truly is a historic event that is playing out in the midst of another historic event, and so we need to make sure that we keep our wits about us and work on this together,” Whitmer said in a press conference, reported by Bridge Michigan.
Whitmer cautioned residents that the water could rise drastically — as much as 9 feet — and issued evacuation orders for parts of Midland, Dow Chemical facilities, and Thomas and Saginaw townships.
The Edenville Dam has a capacity of more than 21 billion gallons of water, the Army Corps of Engineers reports, and is owned by Boyce Hydro Power, LLC.
Alerts Sign-up