Jonathan Korbecki was relaxing at home on the Thornapple River one rainy February night when the fire marshal knocked on his door, warning the nearby Labarge Dam may fail and send a wall of water his way.
Fire breaks out at a pub in Bangkok, killing at least 27 peopleSen. McConnell breaks weeks of silence about health, US and Iran vie for Strait of Hormuz control, ‘The Odyssey’Is there such a thing as being too old to execute?
Aging death row inmates are set to die in FloridaSouth Carolina's governor should appoint Graham’s sister to finish his term, Trump saysWorld Cup semifinals: Four previous champions, a bitter rivalry, Mbappé vs Yamal and Messi vs KaneAP Entertainment Wire12 states challenge Paramount's takeover of Warner Bros, say merger would 'extinguish competition'Fatou, the world's oldest gorilla living in captivity, celebrates her 69th birthday at Berlin ZooRaccoon goes on drunken rampage in Virginia liquor store and passes out on bathroom floorPeople have been fermenting food for millennia.
Here's why more people are focused on gut health nowAt the Kaaba during Hajj, a photographer captures sense of unity and devotionChina’s 'Green Great Wall' tames desert growth, but scientists warn the fight is not overAortic tear blamed in Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sudden death is a fast-killing emergencyWhy losing weight isn't just about counting calories — and what to do about itThe Bayeux Tapestry is at the British Museum after a secret journey from FranceSupport for Israel isn't a high priority for younger Jewish Americans, an AP-NORC poll findsSenador Lindsey Graham probablemente murió por rotura aórtica, según médico forenseTrump says US will blockade Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and charge ships for safe passageSen.
McConnell breaks weeks of silence about health, US and Iran vie for Strait of Hormuz control, ‘The Odyssey’Is there such a thing as being too old to execute? Aging death row inmates are set to die in FloridaSouth Carolina's governor should appoint Graham’s sister to finish his term, Trump saysWorld Cup semifinals: Four previous champions, a bitter rivalry, Mbappé vs Yamal and Messi vs KaneAP Entertainment Wire12 states challenge Paramount's takeover of Warner Bros, say merger would 'extinguish competition'Fatou, the world's oldest gorilla living in captivity, celebrates her 69th birthday at Berlin ZooRaccoon goes on drunken rampage in Virginia liquor store and passes out on bathroom floorPeople have been fermenting food for millennia.
Here's why more people are focused on gut health nowAt the Kaaba during Hajj, a photographer captures sense of unity and devotionChina’s 'Green Great Wall' tames desert growth, but scientists warn the fight is not overAortic tear blamed in Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sudden death is a fast-killing emergencyWhy losing weight isn't just about counting calories — and what to do about itThe Bayeux Tapestry is at the British Museum after a secret journey from FranceSupport for Israel isn't a high priority for younger Jewish Americans, an AP-NORC poll findsSenador Lindsey Graham probablemente murió por rotura aórtica, según médico forenseU.
S. NewsJonathan Korbecki was relaxing at home on the Thornapple River one rainy February night when the fire marshal knocked on his door, warning the nearby Labarge Dam may fail and send a wall of water his way. Hundreds of yards of trucked-in sand prevented disaster that 2018 night at the high-hazard dam, where a failure could have killed nearby residents, washed out a bridge and potentially triggered downstream dam breaches.
Water seeps through the dam’s embankment, the spillway is too small to pass a major flood and the gates controlling water flow past the dam are in a “deteriorated condition,” according to an April 27Like more than 100,000 other Michiganders living downstream of potentially hazardous dams that are often aging, undersized or neglected, Korbecki is left to wonder how long LaBarge will hold.dam failures near Midland prompted unsuccessful efforts to boost oversight of Michigan’s dams, safety shortcomings were laid bare in dramatic fashion again this spring as floods triggered1. The 100,000 residents in the path of a potential flood from a high or significant-hazard dam is likely a vast underestimate.
The conservative figure comes from a study of 219 state-regulated dams, and does not include risks tied to another 60 federally-regulated dams, including some of the state’s largest. Federal officials did not answer a Bridge Michigan inquiry seeking figures for those dams. 2. Nineteen of 153 high-hazard dams listed in state and federal databases — those whose failure could be deadly — are in poor or unsatisfactory condition.
The same goes for 23 out of 155 significant-hazard dams, where failure would cause major destruction. 3. Another 231 dams would likely not meet safety standards if Michigan’s were upgraded to align with national guidance. 4. As dams age, deficiencies have grown widespread. One dam that regulates water levels in several Up North lakes has yawning cracks in its emergency spillway.
Another in White Cloud likely would have failed during recent spring floods had state regulators not ordered it drained last year. Just downstream in Hesperia, where a dam nearly failed this spring, local officials haven’t figured out how to fund upgrades.
Meanwhile, Michigan’s 2,600 dams keep getting older, with the average now three decades past the standard 50-year lifespan and floods grow increasingly severe due to climate change. Experts say Michigan must update its weak regulations, assume greater control over federally regulated dams like LaBarge and intervene more quickly when dam owners cannot or will not make fixes.
“With inaction, we’re not doing anything to reduce the risk,” said Denver-based dam safety expert John France. “Other dams will fail. It’s just a matter of when. ”On paper, most of those costs should fall on private parties, who own some three-quarters of Michigan dams.
But shifting financial realities and poor budgeting have left many owners struggling to fund repairs.
“The financial viability of these small hydro projects is really tough,” said France, who led an investigation into the 2020 Midland failures. “They don’t produce a lot of power. They do create hazards, and they just don’t generate a lot of money to help take care of them. ”By that time, said state dam safety chief Luke Trumble, “you can pretty much add another zero” to the bill.
State taxpayers spent more than $5 million to avert disaster by reinforcing the dam and repowering the plant. It’s not clear whether they will recoup the money, and FERC has repeatedly given plant owner Hom Paper XI LLC more time to explain how it will safely operate the facility moving forward. , a century-old, high-hazard dam in the Upper Peninsula whose owners declared bankruptcy after years of putting off FERC’s ordered fixes.
Last winter, FERC terminated the dam’s federal power generation license, handing responsibility over to the state.of Consumers Energy’s plan to sell its 13 aging dams to a private equity firm. Although all of the Consumers dams are in fair or satisfactory condition now, Judge James VarchettiIt’s a concern shared by Newaygo resident Cindy Atkinson, one of tens of thousands of people who live downstream of three Consumers dams on the Muskegon River.
“We’re at their mercy,” said Atkinson, and the idea of leaving maintenance in the hands of out-of-state owners is “very scary. ”Since the LaBarge Dam’s 2018 emergency, Korbecki has taken to tracking nearby river flow gauges. Water levels have repeatedly neared or exceeded record highs.
“Anybody who says there’s no such thing as climate change, they’re smoking something I’d like some of,” he said. Representatives for the dam’s owner, Commonwealth Power Co., canvassed the neighborhood a few years ago with promises to fix its deficiencies. Until a Bridge Michigan reporter knocked on their doors this spring, several neighbors said they assumed it had been done.
Reached by Bridge, Commonwealth CEO Dwight Bowler said the dam is “fully capable” of passing a 500-year flood and “significant upgrades” are planned. He declined to share specifics, citing a FERC policy that exempts certain records from disclosure in the name of security, but that Asked what assurances FERC officials have that Commonwealth will make required fixes, agency spokesperson Celeste Miller noted that FERC recently accepted the company’s repair plan and an upcoming inspection will identify next steps.
Miller would not say whether downstream residents can be assured that the structure is safe in the meantime. National Hydropower Association President Malcolm Woolf called dams like LaBarge “the exception that proves the rule” that most hydropower dams meet safety requirements. Even when dams are publicly owned and state-regulated — giving Michiganders more control over their fate — finding money and political will to maintain them can prove challenging.
Antrim County officials have known for years about extensive repair needs at two county-owned dams that were built more than a century ago to generate electricity, but now exist primarily to boost water levels on several Up North lakes. One of them — the Elk Rapids Dam — has cracks in its emergency spillway so wide a person could stick their hand inside.
The other — the Bellaire Dam —But tasked with establishing a special assessment district to split $13 million worth of repair costs among roughly 7,000 waterfront landowners who benefit from the dams, Antrim County Dam Operator Leslie Meyers has been unable to get required signoffs from every affected county. She had hoped this spring’s near-failure would spark new momentum, but the sense of urgency appears to have receded with the floodwaters.
The Bellaire Dam is one of several high-hazard dams that fail to meet Michigan’s flood control standards. In the years since the Midland failures, state regulators have gotten more aggressive about requiring upgrades and ordering water drawdowns if owners don’t comply. But the state doesn’t have authority to force fixes at Michigan’s 98 federally-regulated dams, nor at hundreds of state-regulated dams that comply with Michigan law but fall short of modern flood control standards.
Many other states and the federal government require high-hazard dams to be capable of withstanding the so-called probable maximum flood, or the worst-conceivable flood in the surrounding area. The vast majority of high-hazard dams regulated by Michigan need only be built to last a once-in-200-year flood, while a handful that are taller than 40 feet must withstand half of the probable maximum flood.
“A piece of infrastructure that can kill people should be designed to withstand a flood that’s very, very infrequent,” he said. The risks of slow federal enforcement and low state standards were laid bare in the Midland dam failures of 2020, which forced more than 10,000 people to evacuate and caused more than $200 million in property damage.
Federal regulators in charge of the Edenville Dam had spent decades warning it wouldn’t pass a major flood, but struggled to force fixes that dam owner Boyce Hydro argued it couldn’t afford. Ultimately, FERC’s solution was to pass responsibility to Michigan. But lacking access to safety records that FERC keeps hidden, regulators struggled to discern whether the dam met Michigan’s lower bar.
Soon after they determined it did, spring floods destroyed the Edenville Dam and triggered a second failure at the downstream Sanford Dam. In the aftermath, expert panels advised lawmakers to boost Michigan’s dam safety standards, require greater transparency from FERC and create a long-term funding source to repair or remove problem dams. The bills cleared their respective chambers last week, alongside a state budget deal that would funnel millions of dollars toward fixing decrepit dams.
The concern is particularly great for local governments, which own some 275 Michigan dams and fear inheriting more through tax foreclosure if private owners can’t afford the cost of upkeep, said Deena Bosworth, director of government affairs for the Michigan Association of Counties.
“It’s absolutely appropriate to bring up to those standards,” Bosworth said. “It’s just how do you pay for it? ” The Michigan Chamber of Commerce also objects to bill provisions that would give the state shared authority over FERC-regulated dams.
Advocates for the change say it would empower the state to step in when FERC is slow to enforce at problem dams like LaBarge, but Chamber Legislative and External Affairs Director Mike Alaimo argued it would create “another layer of government without really improving standards of performance. ” Changes are likely as negotiations continue, said state Rep. Bill G. Schuette, R-Midland, the chief sponsor of the House version.
“I know the price tag that’s associated with appropriately maintaining our dams is significant,” Schuette said, “but it’s a lot cheaper than the repair after a disaster. ”He and his wife, Haley, lost everything when the Edenville and Sanford dams failed, destroying their home and 94 others, damaging another 1,300 and leaving taxpayers with a multi-hundred-million-dollar cleanup bill.
They spent more than two years “essentially homeless,” living first in a hotel room, then a family member’s garage, then a friend’s house. Six years and one rebuilt house later, Perrin still experiences paranoia with every rainfall. The sound of a sump pump kicking in is enough to make him panic. He is furious that the Edenville dam’s problems went unaddressed for decades — and that safety concerns still linger in plain sight at many other Michigan dams.
“Our infrastructure needs to be repaired, and it needs to happen yesterday,” Perrin said. “Continually kicking the can down the road isn’t a solution. ”
Please follow us on Google to support usDam And Levee Breaches U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Government Regulations General News MI State Wire Dwight Bowler Climate And Environment Cindy Atkinson Leslie Meyers James Varchetti Bill G. Schuette Politics Malcolm Woolf Thomas Perrin Deena Bosworth U.S. News Jonathan Korbecki Mike Alaimo Luke Trumble John France U.S. News Climate
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News: You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
‘Love Island USA’ Season 8 Winners Revealed, Split $100K Prize“Love Island USA’s” fan favorite couple went all the way.
Read more »
Urban Meyer Says God's Blueprint for 'Creating a QB' Resembles Michigan's Bryce UnderwoodIt's easy for the opposing media and fanbase, even some of the Michigan fans themselves, to scrutinize Bryce Underwood. He flipped from LSU and signed with the
Read more »
Pike Place Market attempted kidnapping suspect due in court Monday, held on $100K bailA man accused of an attempted kidnapping at Pike Place Market is due back in court Monday.
Read more »
Paris Hilton shows off striking brunette look while enjoying Michigan cherry festival with her two kidsHilton shares her children with husband Carter Reum.
Read more »