2020 Midland dam break

In a report detailing 86 recommendations designed to improve dam safety in Michigan, members of a state task force focused on changes to state law and policy, along with funding fixes to prevent future dam failures like the Edenville break in May.

From the failure of two Midland-area dams to continued damage from climate change, Michigan’s environment was often in the news this year.

The state’s dam program suffers from a “culture of minimal enforcement” and lacks the time, staff, and budget to properly do its job, an outside review team has found.

A report into a massive dam failure in mid-Michigan didn’t assess blame, but recommends breaching part of the Edenville Dam to minimize damage and other safety concerns.

Facing a host of lawsuits, companies that operated the dams that failed during historic flooding seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, using the filing to list a litany of grievances against federal regulators and neighbors.

Michigan is adding a third dam inspector as part of reforms following the failure of the Edenville Dam that caused $200 million in damages. One inspector who oversaw the dam defends the state’s actions, saying “There’s no ‘Easy’ button, or we would have pushed it.” 

In a claim filed this week, a Sanford couple whose home was destroyed in the floodwater argues federal regulators never should have granted Boyce Hydro a license to generate power at the Edenville Dam.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission members are hauled before a Senate panel to answer why it took so long to act against a dam with decades of safety issues.  Levying fines would have been like “getting blood from a turnip,” one regulator says.

Federal regulators tell Congress it never performed a check on Boyce Hydro’s finances before it bought a dam in need of repairs. They blame a loophole that says such checks aren’t necessary for dams bought out of foreclosure. The dam failed in May.

After criticism from experts and others who argued the state should not lead an investigation into what caused the dam failure that flooded mid-Michigan last month, the state announced an independent six-person team