Edenville and Sanford Updates

The momentum on dam reconstruction has been positive these last several weeks. Check out our Construction Newsletter for greater detail about Secord and Smallwood dams, which have been issued construction permits and are being rebuilt.

​Edenville Dam

FLTF learned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) require a Conditional Letter of Map Revision (CLOMR) for the FEMA 100-year Flood Insurance Plain below the Edenville Dam to the Sanford Dam. This will be needed prior to permitting for the full restoration of Edenville Dam. It is an issue of timing because it takes several months to be processed, but it is a requirement to complete. It will not impact flood insurance.

Therefore, FLTF will submit a “pull-head permit” where the CLOMR is not an issue, and go to bid on the restoration of all the embankments and the cutoff walls inside the embankments. Permitting has been prepared and agreed to by EGLE. We will then follow-up late this year with another bid package for the remaining restoration on Edenville.

The construction sequence for Edenville will be embankments/cutoff wall in 2023 and starting spillways and auxiliary spillway late 2023 or early 2024. The 2025 construction completion date is still feasible with this plan.

Sanford Dam

FLTF has agreement in principle with EGLE on the permitting of the Sanford Dam. The updated permit documents, based on EGLE’s comments, will be submitted next week, and we are expecting to be declared “Administratively Complete” so we can go to public comment in April. We will request a public hearing on this. 

Sanford Dam does not have a FEMA or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) requirement, but the permit will be “red filed” to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has a 90-day review period. We feel we can start to mobilize work, and that there is some pull-head work we may do as an option.
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We expect bid opening on April 21, which will give us a view of the total Sanford costs at that time, however these costs will not likely be finally negotiated by the April 26th meeting.