Here’s where things stand 4 years after the mid-Michigan floods

MIDLAND, MI – The year 2024 was a stalemate of sorts for the folks on the Four Lakes Task Force.

The entity in charge of restoring the dams destroyed in the 2020 mid-Michigan flood celebrated a handful of milestones but was unable to continue some plans due to a bevy of court cases delaying proceedings.

“This year we made significant progress in construction, but unfortunately by mid-year we lost momentum in our mission to restore the Four Lakes because the pending litigation over the lake level assessment rolls has impeded our ability to obtain financing,” Four Lakes Task Force Chair and President Dave Kepler wrote in a year-end statement.

“We know how disappointing it is to end the year with work suspended on three of the four dams and suspension looming on the fourth.”

The dams were formerly owned by Boyce Hydro, an insolvent company that lost them through condemnation after the May 2020 Edenville Dam collapse and flood that caused $200 million in property damage and forced 10,000 people to evacuate.

The organization began taking steps to acquire the former Boyce Hydro dams in 2018 after federal energy regulators revoked the Edenville Dam’s power generation license.

The Four Lakes Task Force received delegated taxing authority in 2019 after legal levels were established for Tittabawassee River impoundments Wixom, Sanford, Smallwood and Secord lakes.

The group was negotiating with former Boyce Hydro owner Lee Mueller to buy the damns and perform long-deferred upgrades when a May 2020 rainstorm overwhelmed the Edenville Dam, which collapsed and unleashed the combined waters of the Tittabawassee and Tobacco rivers in a 500-year flood that inundated downtown Midland.

The flood drained the Wixom and Sanford lake impoundments. The task force later acquired all four Boyce dams through bankruptcy for $1.5 million and has since been working to rebuild the damaged Edenville and Sanford dams, and upgrade spillways and embankments at Secord and Smallwood.

The Smallwood Dam auxiliary spillway construction was completed in March. Construction on the auxiliary spillway and chute at Secord Dam wrapped up in June. In July, the Edenville Dam embankment was completed.

But then work on the dams was halted due to ongoing legal challenges over whether residents living in a special assessment district should be required to help pay for the dam repairs.

On Dec. 11, the Four Lakes Task Force as well as the Heron Cove Association, the group representing residents living in the special assessment district, argued before a panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals in connection with the challenge. The following day, attorneys for Gladwin and Midland counties and the task force appeared in federal district court in Detroit requesting dismissal of two HCA lawsuits.

Neither court has issued a ruling.

“We have legal and contractual obligations to restore the lakes and the financial capacity and permits to do so,” Kepler wrote. “The FLTF board and staff are committed to getting the project restarted as soon as we can in 2025 to fulfill our mission of restoring the lakes so property owners can enjoy them long into the future.”

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