- Consumers Energy may cut flow to the Manistee River to inspect damage at the Hodenpyl Dam
- Recent spring floods caused damage including compromised sheet piling, sinkholes and a suspected leaking retaining wall
- State officials fear tens of thousands of fish could die if Consumers drains the river segment
Consumers Energy may temporarily cut off the flow next month to a popular section of the Manistee River teeming with trout and frequented by boaters, anglers, tubers and hikers.
Company officials say the dewatering may be necessary to inspect damage to the utility’s Hodenpyl Dam from severe spring floods.
They have not issued a broad public announcement about the damage to the tailrace where water exits the 101-year-old dam, which includes compromised sheet piling, sinkholes and a suspected leak in a retaining wall beneath the water’s surface.
In response to questions from Bridge Michigan, company spokesperson Brian Wheeler issued a statement acknowledging the possible flow adjustments “to perform an inspection that could otherwise place divers in an unsafe situation.”
“If we take any steps that affect water flows around Hodenpyl, we’d first communicate with the public,” he said, adding that Consumers has not identified public safety concerns.
Because its plan would interrupt the river’s flow, the dam’s federal power-generating license required Consumers to notify state and federal natural resources officials, who expressed deep concern about impacts to fish and wildlife, including the possible loss of 50,000 trout stocked this spring.
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“I’m trying to put my problem-solving cap on with the goal of preventing a complete stoppage of flow or even a drastic reduction in flow,” Michigan Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Division staffer Patrick Ertel told Consumers officials in a July 15 email obtained by Bridge Michigan.
Flanked by public lands and the popular North Country and Manistee River trails, the river just downstream of Hodenpyl Dam is a popular recreational area. Its current flow below Hodenpyl Dam is 9,276 gallons per second.
DNR spokesperson Ed Golder said Consumers doesn’t need the agency’s permission to cut flows, but DNR plays a consulting role per Hodenypl’s federal hydropower operating license.
In a meeting earlier this month with Consumers officials, DNR officials told the company to craft a plan for rescuing fish and mussels stranded by the reduced flow, which would likely affect several miles of river between Hodenpyl Dam and the backwaters of Tippy Dam.
Consumers then postponed the inspection until August and vowed to explore alternatives that would avoid flow reductions, Golder said.
Wheeler, the Consumers spokesperson, did not answer questions from Bridge Michigan about how much it might cost to repair Hodenpyl’s damage, how long the proposed dewatering could last or whether Consumers has a plan in place to mitigate harm.
The issues at Hodenpyl come as Consumers looks to sell all 13 of its aging Michigan dams to a private equity firm for $1 apiece. The deal would free Consumers of hundreds of millions in looming maintenance costs at the structures on the Au Sable, Grand, Manistee, Muskegon and Kalamazoo rivers.
Consumers officials say buyer Confluence Hydro would instead shoulder those costs using proceeds from a 30-year, $3.4 billion power purchase agreement paid for by Consumers ratepayers.
But a state administrative law judge in June urged regulators to reject the sale, citing concerns that new owners would not make the investments needed to keep the dams safe.
Sale critics say the unplanned repair needs at Hodenpyl underscore those fears.
“These dams are old,” said Bob Stuber, executive director of the Michigan Hydro Relicensing Coalition. “If these kinds of unexpected expenses come up once it’s owned by private equity, will they be as responsive to them?”
Stuber’s group is among a coalition of environmental groups that generally favor dam removal to restore naturally flowing rivers.
In addition to the routine environmental tradeoffs of dams — including blocked fish habitat, warmer water and trapped sediment — Stuber called episodic harm like the proposed river dewatering a “constant annoyance.”
He vehemently opposed the notion of cutting the Manistee’s flow, arguing Consumers should look to other options such as using a pipe to siphon water downstream of the inspection site.
“There’s got to be a better way of doing it,” Stuber said. “It may not be cheaper, but … to shut the flow off the river is unacceptable.”
Details of the plan
In a July 15 email notifying officials of the possible dewatering, Consumers representative David McIntosh wrote that “extremely high river flows experienced in April” had damaged the tailrace below the dam.
Consumers needs to investigate those issues, McIntosh wrote, but other problems at the dam have made it difficult.
The dam’s two generating units, which produce electricity by passing water downstream through spinning turbines, aren’t functioning and won’t be fixed until at least September.
As a result, Consumers is passing water through the dam’s spillgate, causing turbulence that makes it difficult to conduct underwater inspections.
McIntosh wrote that Consumers is considering reducing and completely cutting off the river’s flow for several “short-term” increments.
“Consumers has attempted other means of conducting these inspections without resorting to altering river flows,” he wrote, including placing cofferdams in the river and using remotely operated vehicles, sonar and underwater cameras. “All efforts to date have been unable to combat the spill flow.”
A rare glimpse
Consumers’ requirement to notify public agencies about the proposal offers a rare glimpse into inspection details that are typically shielded from the public in the name of homeland security.
Hydropower dam owners have broad discretion to withhold inspection reports and other safety records — a policy meant to prevent terrorist attacks but that critics see as an excuse for dam owners to hide safety risks.
Following April floods that strained dams across Michigan, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered Consumers to inspect its dams and report back on any safety issues and repair plans.
Consumers complied, but filed its report confidentially.
Wheeler said the company has not identified any public safety concerns at its dams, but acknowledged damage to several of them.
“The public will see Consumers Energy crews performing some concrete repairs at Rogers Dam, conducting sheet pile inspection and repairs at Hodenpyl Dam, and addressing soil depressions and erosion at Rogers, Hodenpyl and Foote dams,” he said.
Consumers’ license for Hodenpyl Dam requires the dam to operate in “run-of-river” mode (with water passing downstream at the river’s natural flow rate) in all but limited circumstances including emergencies, maintenance and in response to special requests by “official government entities.”
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