The Edenville Dam failure is a subject of lawsuits. Of course. Judge allows 25 lawsuits against state of Michigan over 2020 dam failure to proceed
The Edenville dam failed in 2020, and the resulting flood took out a 2nd dam downriver, the Sanford Dam, and did serious damage to towns in the path of the water.
This was what I always considered to be the crucial point in the story.
Residents had argued in their lawsuits that the state not only failed to push dam owner Boyce Hydro to improve its spillway capacity, but that the state also pressured Boyce to raise lake levels during the winter out of concern for a native mussel.
Despite the fact that the dams were in bad shape. Despite the fact that new studies had SHOWN the spillways were incapable of handling a severe flood, the state refused to allow the owner to completely drain the lake, and "encouraged them" to raise water levels ahead of the spring rainy season.
Someone needs to be held accountable for those bone-headed decisions, though I doubt anyone will.
The people who had houses or cabins on the lake are now being asked to pay $16,000 per year for 10 years to pay for rebuilding the damns.
ReplyDeleteA lot of these are tiny vacation cabins, the owners will have to just walk away from the properties.