A federal judge ruled that the former owner of two failed mid-Michigan dams is liable for $120 million in damages. But he filed for bankruptcy in 2020.
Massive floods that caused $200 million damages in Midland were caused by the failure of a dam whose owners knew it was faulty a full decade earlier, a federal judge ruled Friday.
State attorneys said in court documents the Edenville dam owner knew of flaws back in 2010 but took no action. Instead, he spent money on a sawmill and nearly $500,000 on a music festival.
The Edenville and Sanford dams once blocked invasive lampreys from entering upstream rivers. But the 2020 dam failures provided an opening, and lamprey now threaten native fish. Regulators say they have a plan.
Mid-Michigan lawmakers urgently introduced a slate of bills to better fund and regulate Michigan’s aging dams. But more than two years after the Midland disaster, the reforms have yet to receive a hearing.
A new report on flooding that caused $200 million in damages singles out the actions of Midland County’s emergency services coordinator, who called for an early evacuation.
That’s what an independent panel found in its final report chronicling the physical and human causes of the May 2020 dam failures that flooded out mid-Michigan, forcing thousands to evacuate and leaving widespread damage.
Taxpayers will pay to repair dams that caused historic flooding. The investment works out to $32,000 for each property owner around recreational lakes.
A federal audit calls on regulators to ensure industrial sites are reinforced against floods, wildfires and other worsening climate hazards that could trigger chemical spills.
An investigative report released Monday sheds light on the problems that left the dam vulnerable, from a failure to compact the soil during construction to missing drain tiles that the dam’s owner never addressed.
Last year’s flooding destroyed 2,500 structures and property owners say government shares the blame for the dams’ neglect. But is restoring recreational lakes a public necessity?
The fine may be purely symbolic, since Boyce Hydro has declared bankruptcy. But the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chair called it “a clear message” to other dam owners that the agency is serious about dam safety.
Devastating Midland floods would have been worse were it not for the sponge-like properties of a newly-restored wetland along the Shiawassee River. As climate change brings more intense rainstorms to Michigan, the incident is an example of how wetlands could help mitigate flood threats.
In a report detailing 86 recommendations designed to improve dam safety in Michigan, members of a state task force focused on changes to state law and policy, along with funding fixes to prevent future dam failures like the Edenville break in May.
The state’s dam program suffers from a “culture of minimal enforcement” and lacks the time, staff, and budget to properly do its job, an outside review team has found.
A report into a massive dam failure in mid-Michigan didn’t assess blame, but recommends breaching part of the Edenville Dam to minimize damage and other safety concerns.
Facing a host of lawsuits, companies that operated the dams that failed during historic flooding seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, using the filing to list a litany of grievances against federal regulators and neighbors.
