The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy said the failed, 96-year-old Edenville Dam was in "fair" condition following an inspection in late 2018 — a little more than a month after federal regulators revoked the dam's hydro-power generating permit because of persistent questions about its safety.
The earthen berm dam breached amid heavy rains Tuesday, causing historic flooding along the Tittabawassee River in Midland County. Thousands have been evacuated, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has declared the county a disaster area.
Amid record-high water levels across Michigan, and another year of heavy spring rains, EGLE also in April gave permission to raise Lake Wixom, the reservoir created by the Edenville Dam, by 8 feet to its "summer level," a process that was completed May 3, Wixom Lake Association records show.
EGLE assumed regulatory authority for Edenville Dam after its license to generate hydro-power was revoked by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in September 2018. FERC had cited the dam's owner, Boyce Hydro Power LLC's failure to address numerous safety problems, especially the lack of adequate spillways to alleviate water pressure behind the dam during a major flood event.
"EGLE was reviewing federal records and had conducted an initial inspection of the dam in October 2018 and found that it was in fair structural condition," EGLE spokesman Nick Assendelft said in a statement emailed to the Free Press.
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"However we did have strong concerns that the dam did not have enough spillway capacity to meet state requirements. We expressed those concerns to the Boyce Hydro’s consultants, and were continuing conversations about that deficiency."
Those concerns had been expressed to Boyce by FERC for 14 years, to no avail, prior to EGLE's takeover of regulatory authority after the hydro-power license revocation.
After losing its FERC permit — for reasons that are unclear — Boyce Hydro lowered water levels by 8 feet on Lake Wixom, the reservoir in Gladwin and Midland counties created by the Edenville Dam — a wildly unpopular move with Lake Wixom area residents.
EGLE took enforcement action against Boyce last year "for drawing down water levels without permission, and for damage to natural resources as a result of those drawdowns," Assendelft said, adding EGLE was pursuing additional enforcement action at the time of Tuesday's breach.
The lakes created by Boyce Hydro's four dams on the Tittabawassee — Wixom, Sanford, Smallwood and Secord — are subject to state law allowing county governments to regulate inland lake levels, Part 307 of Public Act 451 of 1997, known as Part 307 permits. As conditions of their permits, the lakes' levels are typically drawn down in winter months, to help prevent ice buildup and damage.
The Four Lakes Task Force, an entity created by Gladwin and Midland counties which is in the process of taking over ownership and oversight of the Boyce dams over a phased-in, multi-year process, applied for and received permission from EGLE for an earlier, 8-foot draw-down of Wixom Lake levels this winter for ice reduction and to help facilitate cement repairs on the Edenville spillways.
Under provisions of its Part 307 permit, the draw-down typically begins Dec. 15, and is usually 3 feet for winter. Summer lake levels, an elevation of 675.8 feet, are then restored in early spring, when water temperatures reach 39 degrees Fahrenheit, per the permit.
"We always try to have it up for fishing, for the spawning of the fish," said Larry Woodard, president of the Wixom Lake Association.
"That was part of the decision-making process, when the fish are going to spawn."
The Wixom Lake Association provided residents with regular updates on the rising water levels earlier this year.
"On April 9, 2020, EGLE issued a permit to allow refilling of Wixom Lake," an update on the association's website dated April 15 stated.
"Wixom Lake is now being refilled to the normal summer level at approximately 8 inches per day."
On May 2, the update stated the refilling had progressed to only 6 inches below summer lake levels. "At this level the majority of lakefront owners should have adequate water depths for placement and normal use of boat hoists and docks," the statement read.
The next day, the association reported the lake levels had fully reached summer numbers.
The Free Press asked EGLE officials whether it's prudent to raise the lake levels by 3 to 8 feet in early spring, at times of record-high water across Michigan and amid several years in a row of unusually strong spring rains. They hadn't responded as of Wednesday afternoon.
Delaying the raising of water levels "would be very unpopular" along Wixom lake among property owners eager to put docks in and get boats on the water, said James Hall, who owns a cottage on the lake.
"People up here are ready to go, ready to get out. Enough of sitting at home," he said.
But this spring, with these rains, spelled doom for the Edenville Dam.
"It was horrendous, the amount of water that was in people's houses," said Woodard, who witnessed it first-hand Tuesday.
Wixom Lake is now "pretty much a mud field," with the historic Tittabawassee River bed continuing flows through the Edenville Dam breach downstream, he said.
Lack of investment in dam infrastructure is not uncommon in Michigan dams, which have suffered from deferred maintenance over the course of decades, Assendelft said.
"That, combined with the historic rainfall the flooding, were factors in the Edenville failure," he said.
Contact Keith Matheny: 313-222-5021 or kmatheny@freepress.com. Follow on Twitter @keithmatheny.
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