Sanford Lake refill begins

Four Lakes Community - 
We are seeing the most rain and flooding in Gladwin and Midland counties since 2020. FLTF is monitoring flows and lake levels and communicating with county emergency managers per protocol. Lake and river levels are elevated throughout Michigan. Water is flowing through all four dams as expected and we see no integrity issues with the dams at this time.

We are receiving inquiries asking why we aren’t doing more to control flooding downstream. As a reminder, the dams are not intended for flood control, nor do the lakes have the capacity for flood control storage. The dams are designed and operated as run-of-river, with the intention of not increasing downstream risk from dam failure.

The weather over the last several weeks has slowed construction as crews have not been able to perform work with high levels of water passing through the spillways. While we want to regain construction momentum, the water must recede first.

The Sanford Lake Dam is now operational. What follows in this news flash are guidelines for using and experiencing Sanford Lake. This is an exciting milestone, but full success will be achieved when all four dams and their lakes are safely restored!
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Sincerely,
Dave Kepler,
President and Chair, Four Lakes Task Force

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FAQs

When will Sanford Lake be at its legal level?
We expect Sanford Lake to reach its normal legal level by Memorial Day.

​How quickly will the lake level rise?
The lake was up about 9 feet when we started refill because of rain. It still has 7 feet to go. We can raise the lake 1 foot per day. When Sanford Lake reaches its winter normal which is about 3 feet from the normal summer legal level - we will pause refill for two weeks for the engineers to observe and monitor the dam. The remaining 3 feet of fill will take place after that.

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While it is exciting to see the Sanford Lake level slowly rise, we want to emphasize a few points:

1. Debris is already starting to collect in front of the dam and along the shoreline. If it is safe to do so, please remove debris in front of your property as it is difficult and costly to remove it once it reaches the dam. If you choose to go on the lake, stay alert and watch out for objects floating in the water.
2. The lakebottom and shoreline have changed. Water depths are different; there are fishing structures and rip rap in new places. Please exercise caution.
3. We expect a fair amount of turbidity and debris in the lake. Water quality will not immediately be what it used to be. We will be sampling water quality to monitor for any public health concerns, although we do not expect any. We will do this on all four lakes.

The FLTF website has a new page called Lake Use Guidelines which includes Sanford Dam public safety rules, links to fishing, hunting and boating rules, and additional tips and warnings for navigating Sanford Lake.

For Secord, Smallwood and Wixom lakes, our lakebottom rules still apply.

lake use guidance

lakebottom rules