The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission revoked the license for the Edenville Dam in central Michigan — which breached Tuesday — in 2018 because of concerns that the dams would not be able to withstand heavy flooding.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer confirmed that the Edenville and Sanford Dams had breached, as heavy rains hit the area.
The Edenville and Sanford dams have breached, @GovWhitmer confirms.
"Please get somewhere safe now," Whitmer says.
Thousands of people still need to evacuate, she says, including in Tittabawassee Twp, Thomas Twp, Saginaw Twp, Midland and Sanford.
— Andrew Roth (@RothTheReporter) May 20, 2020
The two dams sit along the same river, the Tittabawassee, which is flooding. The breach of the Edenville Dam on Tuesday sent more water along the river south into the Sanford Lake, causing it to breach as well and forcing evacuations.
Devastated to see what happened today in Midland, Michigan.
Thoughts are with all who are affected by this awful turn of events.
— Ryan Field (@RyanFieldABC) May 20, 2020
Wow.
Video shared from @AhmadBajjeyWx who got it from a viewer just after the Edenville Dam breached.
📸 Kayla Danielle pic.twitter.com/BgKYstqjzG
— Mikenzie Frost (@MikenzieFrost) May 20, 2020
Both the Edenville and Sanford Dams are owned by a private company, Boyce Hydro LLC, as part of a four-dam complex. The FERC revoked the company’s license to operate the Edenville Dam in September 2018. The order says that Boyce Hydro failed to address deficiencies in the dam spillway for the 14 years in which it had the license:
Of particular concern is the project’s inability to pass the Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) [footnote omitted] due to inadequate spillway capacity. The Commission’s Dam Safety Guidelines require the project works to be designed to safely handle a flood up to the PMF either by withstanding overtopping of the loading condition during such a flood or alleviating the risk such that dam failure would no longer constitute a hazard to downstream life or property. [footnote omitted] In the alternative, the capacity of the spillway [footnote omitted] must be adequate to prevent the reservoir from rising to an elevation that would endanger the safety of the project works. [footnote omitted] Currently, spillway capacity at the Edenville Project can only pass about 50 percent of the PMF.
FERC concluded that “revoking the license will leave the community and state agencies increased authority to deal with Boyce Hydro’s noncompliance.” Oversight of the dam falls under the responsibility of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, though local county governments also have significant responsibility for inland dams.
The town of Midland, Michigan, home to Dow Chemical Company, is expected to face flooding to depths of several feet/
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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