NESSEL AND WICKED WITCHMER CAUSED THAT DAM TO FAIL!

Just three weeks before the dam failure, both the state and Boyce Hydro had entered litigation regarding the energy company’s alleged failure to protect endangered mussel populations within Wixom Lake.  The Democrats were claiming that the dam company killed those precious mussels by lowering the water level too much!

Jan. 21, 2020

• Assistant Attorney General Nathan Gambill wrote to Boyce lawyer Lawrence Kogan to give him the “courtesy of a heads up” regarding upcoming litigation over the company’s drawdown of Wixom Lake, launching weeks of negotiation in which the state argued the damages to local mussels amounted to roughly $300 million.

April 2020

• Under pressure from residents of Wixom Lake, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy [EGLE] and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Boyce began to raise the level of the Wixom Lake, with the normal pond level to be reached during the first week of May. Before Boyce did so, EGLE issued it a permit to raise the lake level, despite Boyce claiming the EGLE Dam Safety division was “well aware” of the Edenville Dam’s inability to meet even 50% of the "probable maximum flood" standard.

April 29, 2020

• Boyce Hydro filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan against EGLE the MDNR and high-level officials in those agencies for "multiple violations arising out of their regulation and oversight of the Edenville Dam."

April 30, 2020

• Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit against 10 defendants, including Boyce Hydro and owner Lee Mueller, claiming Boyce lowered the level of Wixom Lakes during extended drawdown periods in 2018 and 2019, resulting in the death of "thousands if not millions" of federally-endangered freshwater mussels. Among the species mentioned by the state is the Snuffbox Mussel, which is on both the state and federal endangered species list.

May 19, 2020

• After three days and a total of 8 inches of rainfall, waters overtook the Edenville Dam, eventually breaching the easternmost portion structure's embankment wall, resulting in the worst flooding event in mid-Michigan history, with nearly 11,000 people in Midland County needing to be evacuated.