State News

Midland flood-responsibility charges continue as residents confront damage

May 24, 2020, 9:33 AM

Is it a stretch to assume Lee Mueller, owner of Boyce Hydro, the owner of the dams that collapsed, catastrophically, last week is not a fan of the federal regulators who repeatedly cited him for failing to maintain the dams that power his small hydroelectricity company? Probably not. 

Featured_muellerandglenn_42749
Boyce Hydro owner Lee Mueller, left, with then-Rep. Gary Glenn in an undated photo. (Photo: GOP House)

So he's deinitely not going to like what Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow said Saturday:

“I think most people would be surprised to know that the majority of our dams are privately owned,” Stabenow said during a news conference Saturday afternoon at the Midland Law Enforcement Center. “And let me be clear — this owner slow-walked and fought federal regulators. Stonewalled for years. … I think that's very important to realize — this privately owned dam could have been addressed before if the owner had stepped up to do it when he was being told that there were problems for years.”

The immediate finger-pointing after the dam collapse has been at Mueller, but from the other side, at state regulators, who took oversight from the feds in 2018. A suit filed by Attorney General Dana Nessel over an unapproved drawdown of lake levels, which killed freshwater mussels, plays directly to both-sides caricatures -- of Republicans who believe the market's invisible hand is enough to protect civilians from business malpractice, and of Democrats who care more about aquatic life than human. 

Nessel is pushing back:

Wixom Lake’s levels were set by court order — an order with which the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy was complying when it declined permits to lower lake levels in 2018 and 2019 and granted a permit in April to raise the lake, Nessel's office said in a statement.

...State emails indicate the state knew as early as Jan. 31 that the dam failed even to meet state safety standards.

Even with that knowledge, the state granted dam owner Boyce Hydro’s permit request to raise Wixom Lake levels April 9, action the department has argued was required under the court-ordered lake levels and permitting laws.

Mueller has said the lake was drawn down in 2018 and 2019 to do winter maintenance, without a permit in 2019.  

Meanwhile, flooded-out residents are assessing the damage and pointing their own fingers. A class-action lawsuit was filed Friday against Boyce Hydro.


Read more:  Detroit Free Press


Leave a Comment:

Photo Of The Day