Ownership disputes, aging design add to Cheboygan dam’s failure threat

Complicated ownership and an outdated design are contributing to the Cheboygan dam failure scare
The privately owned hydro plant connected to the dam has been inoperational for years, reducing flow capacity by up to 30%, and the dam is incapable of passing a major flood
Federal officials ordered the plant restarted months ago, but owners sought and won more time; Now, officials are scrambling to make fixes

Saturated soils, spring snowmelt and heavy rain aren’t the only factors pushing the Cheboygan Lock and Dam complex to the brink of failure.

The list also includes an aging structure owned by two separate entities, where an inoperable powerhouse and outdated design hinder the ability to pass a massive flood like the one now brewing in northern Michigan.

The federal government ordered fixes at the privately owned powerhouse months ago, only to repeatedly grant extensions.

Ownership of the dam complex in downtown Cheboygan is split between the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, which owns the dam built in 1922, and Hom Paper XI LLC, the latest in a series of private owners of an adjoining hydropower plant that once provided electricity to a now-shuttered tissue factory.

The powerhouse has been offline since 2023, when a fire in an adjacent building triggered years of legal disputes and confusion about the mill property’s ownership.

This map shows the projected areas of potential flooding should the Cheboygan dam fail. The purple area is an active work zone and is closed to the public, while the green area represents potential flooding. (Courtesy of the Michigan State Police)

RELATED:

That has reduced the dam complex’s ability to pass water downstream by as much as 30%, leaving the DNR side of the structure working overtime to manage water levels.

Meanwhile, Michigan dam safety chief Luke Trumble told Bridge Michigan the dam is incapable of passing the so-called “probable maximum flood,” a term for the worst possible flood that could be expected in the surrounding area and the standard for federally regulated hydropower dams.

The ongoing flooding in northern Michigan comes close.

“We’re probably getting something that’s on the record, or exceeding the 500-year flood on the Cheboygan and Black River,” Trumble said.

Records show the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates the dam complex, ordered Hom Paper to take steps toward restoring powerhouse operations nine months ago, but the company requested and won repeated extensions as it looks to sell the facility to a company called HydroMine Cheboygan LLC.

That delay prompted criticism from one prominent Michigan dam safety watchdog, who argued the Cheboygan situation fits a longstanding pattern of weak federal enforcement that ultimately leads to dangerous situations.

“This is the same pattern that occurred with Boyce Hydro on the Tittabawassee and Renewable World Energy at the Au Train Project ,” said Bob Stuber, executive director of the Michigan Hydro Relicensing Coalition, referring to two Michigan dam owners that repeatedly stalled on FERC-ordered improvements only to declare bankruptcy amid a resulting dam safety crisis.

Stuber said he fears the Cheboygan facility will become “one more aging dam that the Michigan taxpayers get left holding the bag with.”

FERC has pressed Hom and previous owners about overdue repair projects and inspection reports at the Cheboygan facility for years — issues that appear to have been complicated by the 2023 fire and subsequent wrangling over who controls the facility.

While Hom has owned the mill property since early 2023, the company formerly leased the hydro plant and mill to other entities. Following the fire, Hom evicted the tenants amid a plan to sell the property to redevelopers.

But that plan fell apart as inspectors identified extensive repair needs at the hydro plant and a former tenant sued Hom and others in a failed bid to reclaim access.

Soon after the fire, FERC pressed Hom about issues at the plant: “We are concerned about the number of outstanding dam safety items and your lack of communication and responsiveness,” wrote regional engineer Kevin Griebenow.

Company lawyer Tyler Tennent responded in December 2023, noting that “our clients are trying to understand the responsibilities relating to the hydropower operations at the Property.”

By July 2025, FERC had ordered Hom Paper XI to submit a plan and schedule to restore the powerhouse to full operational status or surrender its exemption from FERC licensing. But the company sought and won extra time, noting that it was in talks with HydroMine to take over the facility.

“This additional time will enable the parties to report back with more certainty as to the plans and timelines for ultimate restoration of operations at the site,” Tennent wrote in September.

Thomas Homco, a former NFL linebacker who controls Hom Paper, did not return a call or email from Bridge Michigan. His lawyer, Tennent, asked Bridge Michigan to send written questions that were not immediately answered.

FERC officials did not answer emailed questions from Bridge Michigan about the agency’s interaction with the hydro plant’s owners and its granting of extensions.

Agency spokesperson Celeste Miller responded with a statement highlighting FERC’s collaboration with the DNR and the private owners “to address the evolving circumstances.

“We have staff currently on site, coordinating with the Incident Commander and assisting as developments occur,” Miller said. “Above all, our priority is to coordinate with all involved partners to safeguard both the community and the environment.”

As state officials watched water levels rise in the Cheboygan River in recent days, an around-the-clock scramble ensued to bring the powerhouse back online in hopes of saving the dam.

Officials told Bridge Michigan the goal is to get it done Monday, with hopes that the additional capacity will stop the Cheboygan River from overtopping the dam. The dam is classified as high-hazard, meaning a failure could cause significant property damage and loss of human life.

If successful, the attempt to repower the powerhouse could increase downstream flows from a current 6,700 cubic feet per second to 9,000 cubic feet per second, said DNR spokesperson Laurie Abel.

Crews have also stacked sandbags along the dam and taken other measures in hopes of preventing a failure.

Once the crisis is over, Trumble said, officials must turn their attention to expanding the dam’s insufficient spillway capacity. Such a project would likely cost millions of dollars.

“Assuming the dam survives, then we need to figure this out,” he said. “When can spillway capacity upgrades be achieved?”

Unlike the Edenville dam that flooded out broad swaths of mid-Michigan when it failed in 2020, the Cheboygan dam would inflict far less downstream damage. A map released by the state shows possible impacts limited to a narrow, mostly commercial downtown strip within about a block of the river.

But the long-term environmental and recreational impacts of a failure could be huge.

The Cheboygan dam complex controls water levels in the Inland Waterway, a 40-mile-long chain of rivers and lakes that drains through the Cheboygan River. Losing the dam would lower water levels in Mullet and Burt lakes by several feet, Trumble said.

He described the Cheboygan dam as another cautionary tale about the perils of Michigan’s aging and undersized dams. Many weren’t built to modern flood control standards.

“Until that gets corrected,” Trumble said, “it doesn’t take a biblical-proportion flood to cause a dam failure.”

Yet Michigan’s dam safety standards are among the weakest in the nation, meaning the owners of insufficiently sized dams are often not required to expand them (as a federally regulated dam, the Cheboygan structure may be held to a higher standard). Lawmakers have not acted on repeated attempts at reform.

Meanwhile, climate change is altering the freeze-thaw patterns and spring rainstorms that fuel floods, adding new risks for already-undersized dams.

Thank you to our Michigan Environment Watch sponsors

Bridge Michigan Environment Watch is made possible by generous financial support from our sponsors. Sponsorship supports our independent journalism mission but does not constitute sponsor endorsement of individual articles or editorial content. Bridge Michigan journalism remains fact- and data-driven and independent at all times.

Please visit the About page for more information and to subscribe to Environment Watch. Interested in becoming a sponsor? Contact Emma Carr.