AG: Boyce Hydro predicted Edenville Dam failure 10 years earlier

MID-MICHIGAN (WJRT) - New evidence indicates that Boyce Hydro predicted the Edenville Dam would collapse in the far east a decade before the catastrophe, according to the Michigan Attorney General's Office.

However, state officials say the dam's owner ignored critical safety measures and wasted money on parallel projects instead of making necessary repairs.

The Edenville Dam failed on May 19, 2020, after days of heavy rain that caused the water level to rise in Lake Wixom behind the structure. The soil on the eastern flank of the dam liquefied and broke up.

The contents of Lake Wixom rushed down the Tittabawassee River, where it overflowed the Sanford Dam and caused record flooding in the Midland area.

The attorney general's office is asking a federal judge to rule in favor of the state in a lawsuit over enforcement actions against Boyce Hydro, which owned the Edenville, Sanford, Smallwood and Secord dams when the disaster struck.

While gathering evidence for the lawsuit, state attorneys say Boyce Hydro determined in 2010 that the eastern flank of the Edenville dam could collapse if Wixom Lake rose too high. The company designed a repair, but never took steps to complete it.

"We uncovered an inconceivable disregard for the safety and integrity of the dam that greatly cost the community that relied on the safety of that dam, and it is important that we share this with the court today," said Michigan Attorney General Dana nessel.

The attorney general's office says Boyce Hydro never disclosed its concerns about the east flank to federal regulators, when the structure was under the supervision of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Concerns were also not passed on to state regulators after FERC suspended Boyce Hydro's license to generate hydroelectric power and the dam fell under state control in 2018.

"This fits with the company's decades-long history of violations and antagonism toward federal and state regulators and illustrates the culpability of the owners in this catastrophic dam failure," said Aaron Keatley, acting director of the Department of Environment, Large Michigan Lakes and Power.

The attorney general's office says the dam's chief operator and safety engineer resigned in May 2017 because Boyce Hydro manager Lee Mueller routinely neglected basic safety measures.

Instead, state attorneys say Mueller spent Boyce Hydro money on "expensive and unproductive" side projects, such as planning a music festival and trying to develop an RV park or residential neighborhood with a marina on the dam. .

Mueller also allegedly bought a sawmill and acquired a large amount of heavy equipment for Boyce Hydro. The attorney general's office says the main operator resigned when Boyce Hydro ordered staff to build an off-site pond instead of repairing the Edenville Dam.

"The Edenville Dam failure was a devastating tragedy for thousands of people in that community, and these new revelations clearly show that the failure began at the top of Boyce Hydro," Nessel said.

If Michigan lawyers are successful with the motion they filed in court Thursday, the state could blame Boyce Hydro for the dam failure and seize the company's remaining assets to give to flood victims.

A timeline was not discussed Thursday for when a ruling would come.