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Edenville Dam owner knew about defects 10 years before failure, filing claims | Dump Trucks Charlotte NC

Aerial view of a broken dam structure, mostly overwhelmed by water.
Aftermath of the 2020 Edenville Dam collapse in Sanford, Michigan. Gregory Shamus via Getty Images

Columbus Ohio Dump Truck Company Brief:

  • New details about the 2020 Edenville and Sanford dam failures in central Michigan have recently come to light as the state moves through the discovery process of its federal lawsuit against the former dam owner. In 2010, owner Boyce Hydro allegedly determined that the east embankment of Edenville Dam might fail if Wixom Lake rose too high and made plans to fix it, but did not follow through, according to court filings. That same area failed in May 2020.
  • The embankment collapse emptied the lake, forcing 10,000 people to be evacuated and causing $175 million in damage to downstream homes. There is no indication that Boyce Hydro previously divulged the defect to the federal government, which regulated the dam at the time, nor did it alert the state after it took over regulation in September 2018, per the discovery document. 
  • The state claims Lee Mueller, who owned and managed the dam, attempted to keep evidence of his knowledge of the dam’s defects secret by defying court orders for months. The goal of the lawsuit is to prove liability for the failure and get financial restitution, but Mueller has claimed fiscal hardship and may not have enough money to pay even if he is proven responsible.

Dump Trucks Columbus OH Insight:

Reached by Construction Dive, Mueller did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Michigan State Attorney General’s office filed a brief in support of a motion for summary judgment on May 25 on behalf of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, which are suing Mueller and various companies associated with him. The document alleges Mueller and his columbus oh dump truck company Boyce Hydro are fully to blame for the dam failure.

The document said state and federal inspectors told Mueller of dangerous faults a decade before the dam failed, and notes that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission revoked the dam’s hydropower generator license in 2018. 

The document also claimedthat Boyce Hydro’s former dam safety engineer and chief operator resigned in protest in 2017 because Mueller allegedly neglected safety measures in favor of various efforts to make a profit. The engineer tried to persuade Mueller to fix the embankment, and expressed frustration over his pursuit of projects like a sawmill, marina and a music festival, according to the filing.

The chief operator testified that he told Mueller that, “You’re in the hydro business now, you got to pay attention,” according to the brief. Mueller allegedly responded, “I’m not in the hydro business. I’m in the money-making business.” The chief operator resigned in 2017 after Mueller started making plans to dig a pond and develop a subdivision in the area, the document asserts.

In February, the federal court sanctioned Mueller for numerous failures to obey discovery orders and provide information about the dam failure, saying he “engaged in bad faith and/or contumacious conduct.” 

This is not the only lawsuit related to the Edenville Dam failure. In April, dozens of area residents filed a lawsuit against FERC alleging it didn't follow its obligations, and said that dereliction was a major contributing factor to the incident.

Private dam failures a big risk

Last year, FERC's independent forensic team released a report that found that the Edenville incident was "foreseeable and preventable." A key embankment was compacted improperly when the dams were built in the 1920s, setting them up to fail, and a combination of factors enabled the disaster a century later. However, unlike the assertions in the state’s recent filing, FERC said blame was not easy to assign.

“The failure cannot reasonably be attributed to any one individual, group, or organization. Instead, it was the overall system for financing, designing, constructing, operating, evaluating, and upgrading the four dams, involving many parties during the nearly 100 years of project history, which fell short in ensuring a safe dam at the Edenville site,” the report stated.

In addition, there is evidence that more dams may be at risk of failures. There are more than 15,000 high-hazard dams owned by entities other than the federal government, according to the Association of State Dam Safety Officials. It would cost $157.5 billion to rehabilitate the nation’s 88,616 deficient non-federal dams — which dwarfs the amount of funding available — and that price tag is only rising, per a 2023 ASDSO report.

As of 2019, 56.4% of U.S. dams were privately owned, per the American Society of Civil Engineers, and repairs on these dams can be difficult as regulators have little leverage over owners who don’t have the money or desire to make repairs. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provides another $4 billion for rehabilitation, but it’s not nearly enough to address even the most dangerous of dams.

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