​While we have not completed a comprehensive review of the Independent Forensic Team’s (IFT) Final Report in connection with the failures of Edenville and Sanford dams, we wanted to provide the community with a summary of our initial review of the report. The experts created a report with over 500 pages of analysis and data. This document is a summary and we will share a more robust analysis later. In the meantime, please send questions to info@fourlakestaskforce.org.

Click to read the initial review of the IFT report.

On Monday, May 16th, the Tobacco Spillway fishing area (east side of the water channel below the dam) will be closed for the day while crews finish existing work from the fall and winter on the dam. The fishing area will be open to the public again on May 17th. 

On Monday, April 25th, Midland City Council met in a special meeting with FLTF and the City's Advisory Committee on Infrastructure to discuss updates on dam restoration and hydrology studies.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy Water Resources Division (WRD) has posted a public notice to the MiWaters home page. The notice is also being sent to Wixom Lake property owners whose parcels are adjacent to Edenville Dam. The notice is to give property owners an opportunity to comment on recent design work performed under emergency order of EGLE. The work involved the creation of design documents to stabilize the dams. ​To view the document, click on this link.  

​Today it was announced Four Lakes Task Force will receive a $750,000 grant for booms on Secord and Smallwood dams. 
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Booms control surface debris, provide for public safety boat barriers and define zones of no-entry around dams. The boom consists of 10-foot HDPE (high-density polyethylene AKA plastic) modular units which link together to form an unlimited length of boom lines. The boom line is anchored to the shore and to the bottom of the lake to provide a secure barrier around the spillway.

As we work through the Special Assessment for the operations and maintenance of the dams, we've received questions about how the dams will operate and what benefit they bring. Below is a brief explanation with links to articles published in the past that explain these concepts.
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The dams will be operated as "run of the river" facilities. This means the dam gates are operated to keep a normal "legal" lake level, such that the outflow from the dam is equal to the water flowing into it. The dams will not store additional water in the lake, therefore the lake levels will not fluctuate as much as they did when the dams produced power. The lake level is more stable and downstream of the dam, the river will be a natural flow, with less negative impact on the shoreline.