Editor’s note: Part two of a two-part series
ELK RAPIDS — Two dams in Antrim County need help, but finding the money to fix one is complicated.
That’s because the Elk Rapids Dam is licensed and regulated by the federal government as a hydroelectric plant, county Drain Commissioner and Operator of Dams Leslie Meyers said.
In contrast, the Bellaire Dam on the Intermediate River is regulated by the state, and eligible for Dam Risk Reduction Grants — unlike Elk Rapids Dam.
Meyers said she’s still looking for grants that could help pay for needed emergency spillway work for the Elk Rapids Dam. She’s looking into whether the Federal Emergency Management Administration or U.S. Department of Agriculture might be able to help.
“Our resources our limited, but I want to use every one I can, and every time I hear about.a new one, and I just did hear about another one through recreational boaters of the State of Michigan,” she said. “Well, we get to boat because of these dams, so maybe that would be of help.”
While the Elk Rapids Dam generates power — and money — that amounts to about $400,000 a year, not including expenses, Meyers said. That wouldn’t leave much to maintain the structure.
One option is to ask riparian property owners to split the bill through a special assessment district that stretches along lake shorelines from Elk Rapids to Bellaire, Meyers said. She acknowledged that might not be a popular option among taxpayers within the district, but said the dam is key to maintaining water levels in one of the region’s biggest economic drivers.
Nobody likes paying more taxes, but if a special assessment is critical to maintaining the dam, lakeshore property owners might not object, said John Spevacek, vice president of Elk Skegemog Lakes Association. First, though, officials like Meyers would have to make their case.
“I don’t have that big a problem with paying some extra taxes if it’s important,” he said. “Like I say, nobody likes to pay extra taxes, but we love our lakes, so they’re important to us.”
Association President George Siefried said he also believed lakeshore owners would go along with paying a special assessment, so long as they were convinced it was necessary. Elk Rapids Dam’s emergency spillway needs to be able to pass enough water during storms and other high-flow events, or flooding could occur — something no one wants to see.
Siefried also wondered if the lakes’ tourism draw would merit spreading the cost beyond just riparian owners.
“You know that our whole area, in Antrim County and even all of Grand Traverse County, the natural resources that we have is a main attraction for a lot of the tourism and help to our economy up here,” he said.
Meyers landed a $450,000 Dam Risk Reduction Grant to design improvements to the Bellaire Dam after recent studies showed it could be overtopped during a 100-year flood event within the upper Chain of Lakes watershed, as previously reported.
Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy doesn’t award those grants to hydroelectric dams because they’re regulated by the federal government, and because they generate revenue to pay for maintenance, department spokesman Jeff Johnston said in an email. Those dams also are eligible for funding exclusively available to them through the U.S. Department of Energy.
There are a handful of exceptions, where dams in Michigan with prewar construction or that generate power solely for the municipality that owns them are eligible for Dam Risk Reduction Grants, Johnston added.
Not only are those grants unavailable to hydroelectric dams, but they mostly are focused on dam removal projects, Meyers said. That’s not an option for either the Elk Rapids or Bellaire dams, given the role they play in maintaining court-ordered lake levels.
Rugg Pond in Kalkaksa County’s Rapid River Township is one such dam removal project. Conservation Resource Alliance is working with the county to demolish the faltering, 1904-built dam that once generated power for Kalkaska Light and Power Company, CRA Program Director and Biologist Kim Balke said.
The dam sits in county-owned land at the confluence of the Rapid and Little Rapid rivers and, over the years, sediment has nearly filled the pond. Balke said preliminary estimates are more than 200,000 cubic yards – and the pond could be completely filled within 15 years.
What’s more, the dam is in poor shape, with an assessment showing the spillway and embankment need work. Nor is there any funding stream available to dredge the sediment.
“So with the site changing and becoming less productive for fish and wildlife habitat, and full of such an extraordinary amount of sediment, having a stable, free-flowing river through the area is a much healthier option for both macroinvertebrates, fish and wildlife species and with the community as well,” Balke said.
Plans are to restore the two river channels and stabilize the former pond bottomlands with native tree, shrub and grass plantings, Balke said. The project will also provide recreational access to the restored river within the 102 acres the county owns.
The state granted CRA $1 million for the project, according to a release.
Rugg Pond Dam no longer serves its original intended purpose, as is the case with two others CRA is working to remove, Balke said.
The Boyne Falls Dam also used to generate power, and its pond is also filling with sediment. Money from the state and Charlevoix County Community Foundation paid for a feasibility study to remove the dam, and CRA is also looking at replacing an undersized culvert, repairing a trail crossing and removing the remains of a former railroad bridge.
In Baldwin, CRA is also working to remove a dam that once served a state fish hatchery, and to install a seasonal sea lamprey barrier to block the parasitic invasive species from spawning in the upper reaches of the Baldwin River, Balke said.
Elk Rapids Dam also serves as a sea lamprey barrier, so that function, plus its role in stabilizing lake levels, means that removing it wouldn’t make much sense, said Bob Stuber, Michigan Hydro Relicensing Coalition executive director. The coalition typically supports dam removal and river restoration where it’s warranted.
“But we recognize that it’s complex,” he said. “They provide a lot of community benefits and they provide ecological benefits.”
Hydroelectric dams all over the country are facing similar predicaments: they’re old and nearing the end of their useful lives, and the cost to maintain them keeps growing, Stuber said. Consumers Energy is negotiating the sale of all 13 of its hydroelectric dams, including Hodenpyl near Mesick, as the power they produce becomes increasingly expensive compared to other sources and costly repairs and upgrades mount.
That same scenario led Traverse City Light & Power to surrender its hydroelectric licenses for the Brown Bridge, Boardman and Sabin dams on the Boardman-Ottaway River, Stuber said. When other parties considered buying them to keep generating power, they were faced with having to make the same multimillion-dollar repairs to bring the dams in compliance with federal regulations — the same repairs TCL&P concluded it would never recoup through power generation revenues.
The Federal Energy Regulation Commission agreed with the plan to decommission the dams.
“And FERC made it very clear, they did not make a decision that TCL&P should remove those dams,” Stuber said.
Eventually, the Boardman River Dams Committee recommended removing the dams after gathering input for a few years, Stuber said.
Contractors are now in the midst of replacing Union Street Dam — the last on the river — with FishPass, a labyrinth weir and concrete channel fed by a headworks where scientists will develop a two-way selective fish passage system.
As for the Elk Rapids Dam, Stuber said it might be time for lakeshore property owners to step up up and take some responsibility for its upkeep.
“You could take it out of power production and you could then maintain it as a lamprey barrier and lake level control structure, but then the question becomes, who’s going to pay for that annual operations and maintenance and all that stuff, and the repairs as they come along?”