About that Michigan Dam disaster

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Tennessee Star article

The private operator has been blamed by Michigan authorities for the collapse of two dams that resulted in widespread destruction of property.

But it turns out that the owners recognized the hazard and had begun lowering the water levels to prevent the  collapse. Then, Michigan’s Attorney General sued the operator to compel them to return the water levels to normal because lowering the levels was killing fresh water mussels.

Once again, wacko Democrat environmentalists put a dubious environmental agenda (the mussels, and everything else in the lakes are dead anyway) ahead of human lives and property.

 

Published by Don Tabor

I am a former Chairman of the Tidewater Libertarian Party and was the 2007 LP candidate for the 14th district VA Senate. Previously, I was the Volunteer State Director for the FairTax. I am married 50 years with two grown children and 5 grandchildren.

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7 thoughts on “About that Michigan Dam disaster”

    1. Yes, the operator lowered the level prior to the spring floods each of the last two years as a precaution against the seasonal threat.

      The MI AG dues to force them the raise the level back to normal pool and to cease the annual safety drawdown in the future.

      Then the spring flood came and the safety margin was not there.

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      2. More to come. I just don’t believe we are hearing the whole story. If it was a regular routine, what changed?

        If the AG came out of the blue this year, why?

        Was it all about mussels or was it about issues with Hydro?

        You may be right and if you are, the AG is certainly in the wrong.

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      3. A copy of their application and EGLE’s denial show that Boyce Hydro was not, as they seem to suggest, trying to permanently draw down the lake out of fear of flooding,” Attorney General Press Secretary Ryan Jarvi said in an email to ABC12 News. “They were trying to avoid the expense — incurred by the other hydroelectric dams in Michigan — of developing the means to safely fight ice in ways other than simply draining the impoundment.”

        But on April 9, Boyce Hydro received approval from the state to raise the level of Wixom Lake to normal summer pool elevation for the spring of 2020. Then on May 19, the Edenville Dam broke.

        According to published reports, Boyce Hydro claims it was pressured by the state to raise the water levels.

        Jarvi isn’t sure why the company believes it was pressured, but says the state was concerned when granting permission for Boyce Hydro to refill the lake “because Boyce Hydro was hesitant to promise that it wouldn’t just drop the level again in winter 2020, thus further damaging the state’s natural resources.”

        From my link earlier.

        Like I said, it is not clear cut. Yet.

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        1. Yes, they lowered(not drained) it every winter and kept it down until summer, until this year when the AG sued them. That was to prevent shifting ice and the spring flood from breaching the damn.

          The result was that when the flood game it exceeded the capacity of the spillway and the water overtopped the earthen dam, causing it to fail.

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