Editor’s note: For the latest update on the Cheboygan dam and flooding in northern Michigan, see Saturday’s Detroit News coverage here.
Cheboygan ― Levels of the Cheboygan River were fluctuating Friday night after lowering much of the day as workers were able to reactiviate the turbine inside the hydroelectric dam at the Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex that had been offline for years.
As the hydroelectric plant restarted earlier Friday, the river fell to 6.48 inches below the top of the dam at 12:45 p.m., then to 7.08 inches by 2:30 p.m., and 7.32 inches by 3:30 p.m., but started rising again as of 7 p.m., to 6.96 inches. By 10 p.m., the water had lowered again by .12 inches to 7.08 inches. It was nearly a 2-inch improvement from the mark of 5.16 inches at 8:45 a.m. Friday, according to the Michigan State Police Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division.
“They’re expected to fluctuate further as water moves into the basin from upstream. Consumers Energy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, state agencies and other contractors worked long hours to reopen the powerhouse,” read a post from the Michigan State Police’s Emergency Management and Homeland Security division on Facebook on Friday night.
An early Friday morning reading of 5.16 inches showed the water level was down about 0.24 inches since the last measurement of 4.92 inches early Thursday evening.
Richard Hill of the DNR’s Incident Management Team said in a statement that restarting the turbine at the Cheboygan Dam Hydroelectric Powerhouse “was technical and exacting, involving rewiring circuits, testing machinery that has been idle for years and connecting the power station to the grid.”
Officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, said in a statement earlier Friday on Facebook that they were working with the state police’s emergency management division, along with Consumers Energy and the dam’s private owner, to restart the hydroelectric plant’s turbine and return it to full capacity.
“This is intended to help move water through the dam,” they said. “We are also working with dam safety partners across the state to assess watershed impacts and support the evaluation and modeling of dams in Cheboygan County.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called the initial declining river levels great news on Friday and said the turbine was already making “a big difference.”
“Thank you to the crews who have been working 24/7 this week to restart the hydroelectric turbine, which hadn’t been operational for a few years,” Whitmer said in a post on X. “Their heroic actions are already making a big difference to lower water levels.”
Friday’s earlier water level drop was the first decline in six days. State officials alerted the public about the dam emergency on April 10 when the river was 18 inches below the dam’s top. It then fell 2 inches to 20 inches below cresting on Saturday before starting five consecutive days of rising levels.
Cheboygan area residents see hope in dam turbine restarting
Residents were buoyed by the restarting of the hydroelectric turbine. The water level at the Cheboygan Dam had already dipped before the machinery came online.“That’s good news for a change,” said Patti Stone of Cheboygan. “We needed to hear something good.”Stone’s home was safe from flooding, but she said she knows people who live along the Cheboygan River and worried about businesses located downriver from the dam.Vicki Alexander of Cheboygan said she’s been worried for days about the impact of a cresting dam on the city of more than 4,800 residents.
The city’s downtown is directly downriver from the structure.“It’s a sitting duck. I mean, the city would be underwater,” Alexander said.
The seawalls armoring the riverbanks downriver of the dam would help to contain some of the water, and any flooding over those seawalls would crest at 2 feet in a limited area around the river, Department of Natural Resources senior engineer Michelle Crook said earlier this week. The earlier dropping water level, the hydro dam coming back to life and the 70-degree day put Alexander in a better frame of mind.“It’s beautiful out,” she exclaimed. “If the water keeps falling, everything will be perfect.”
Why wasn’t dam turbine operational?
Friday’s initial falling river levels came after the turbine inside the Cheboygan dam hadn’t been operational for three years because of an ownership dispute. Requested upgrades by federal regulators weren’t made.
The Cheboygan Dam’s spillway and lock structure is owned by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, which uses it to control water levels on the Cheboygan River and connected upstream waterways.
But the DNR does not own the hydroelectric equipment on-site that was previously used to generate power from the river’s flow.
The ownership of the equipment is in dispute in a local court, but federal energy regulators say Hom Paper XI LLC is responsible for it. The hydropower equipment hasn’t operated since the adjacent Great Lakes Tissue Company caught fire in 2023.
Residents along Cheboygan and Black rivers urged to pack, be ready to evacuate
For several days, residents and businesses downriver from the Cheboygan Dam have been worried about flooding.On Friday, it was the upriver folks’ turn to fret.The Alverno Dam, which is located southeast of Cheboygan, is bracing for a surge of water over the next few days, said the state police’s emergency management and homeland security division.The state agency encouraged residents living along the Cheboygan and Black rivers to pack essential items and be prepared to evacuate.Belle Jackson of Alverno didn’t have to be told twice. She lives along the Black River.“I’m packed up and ready to go,” Jackson said, standing next to her Chevy Impala laden with clothes and bursting plastic bags. “I’m not going to wait for the water coming through my door.”Watching day after day news accounts of the Cheboygan Dam possibly overflowing, she had plenty of time to think about what she would do in a similar situation.Then she heard about the Alverno Dam, and the theory became plausible.“You hope for the best and plan for the worst,” Jackson said.
Equally philosophical was Janice Charles of Alverno, who also lives near the Black River.
She wasn’t as well prepared as Jackson, but said she was ready to go at a moment’s notice.“You hope it doesn’t happen, but what are you going to do?” Charles asked. “If you have to get out, you have to get out.”She began moving some of her most valuable items, including a family scrapbook, to her mother’s home away from the river.If worst comes to worst, she’ll join the items at her mom’s.“It’s a tight fit, but we’ll make it work,” Charles said about the living accommodations. “What else are you going to do?”
Emergency responders are on Black Lake
On a day of beautiful weather and positive flooding news, the forecast was anything but along the western edge of Black Lake.
Cheboygan County Emergency Management was strongly urging residents to evacuate on Friday.
The ongoing washing out of roads was severely limiting residents’ ability to escape the neighborhood in an emergency, the county agency said.
Officials wanted the residents to leave while they still had a chance.
Don Granger of Onaway wasn’t sure what he was going to do.
First, he needed to find a way to reach his lakefront cottage. A road that washed out Friday was blocking his path.
“How far were you able to get?” Granger asked a motorist coming from the direction of his home. “I can’t get home.”
He talked to a Michigan State Police officer, who suggested a two-track path through private property that wound around the damaged road.
A phalanx of state troopers, conservation officers and even Border Patrol agents were helping people remove items from their homes.
Also involved were members of the state police marine services team, who were helping remove items from boats.
Residents who evacuated left pieces of fabric on their doors to alert first responders that they wouldn’t need help during an emergency.
Because of security concerns, state police and private security officials were limiting access to the neighborhoods to residents.
More rain in the forecast for northern Michigan
More rain is in Friday’s forecast for northern Michigan, especially west of Interstate 75, according to the National Weather Service in Gaylord. Flood warnings are in effect through Sunday for nearly two dozen northern Michigan counties.
An additional 0.25 inches up to 0.75 inches of rain was possible late Friday. Strong winds are also forecast.
If the Cheboygan River water crests above the dam top, it may lead to a dam failure and major erosion to the earthen area surrounding the boat lock channel.
Because the dam is located above the downtown area of Cheboygan, there are few residential condominiums and commercial buildings that could be affected by a breach of the dam, Cheboygan County Sheriff Todd Ross said Thursday. Just beyond downtown Cheboygan, the river spills into Lake Huron, reducing the impact on property and residents, Ross said.
Whitmer and local officials expressed optimism at a Thursday afternoon press conference that a dam failure could be averted.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has installed large-volume pumps on the banks of the Cheboygan River to divert water away from entering the Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex. There is flooding upstream from the Cheboygan River on Burt, Black and Mullett lakes, as well as several rivers and streams that are tributaries to the Cheboygan River.
What is happening with other Michigan dams
Residents downstream of the Croton Dam in Newaygo County were told Thursday by Newaygo County Emergency Services to evacuate immediately as water levels on the Muskegon River rose.
Water in the impoundment behind Croton Dam is 12 feet above normal, but the director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources stressed Thursday that the dam is not in danger of failing.
“There is no trouble with the dam,” DNR Director Scott Bowen said during a Thursday press conference with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Cheboygan, where the state is trying to avert a dam failure on the Cheboygan River.
The Croton Dam, which Consumers Energy owns and uses to make hydropower, is not at risk of failing, Consumers spokesman Brian Wheeler said. The Jackson-based utility company’s dam operators allow additional water to pass downstream when river flows are high. Water has not entered the dam’s emergency spillway, Wheeler said.
“The dam is structurally sound and operating safely,” he said.
The situation was developing rapidly, county emergency workers said. An evacuation center is available at the Newaygo County Commission on Aging, 93 S. Gibbs St., in White Cloud.
Northern Michigan bridge, road closures plague parts of region
Heavy spring rainfall and lingering melt-off of winter snow and inland lake ice have left much of Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula awash in water this week, wreaking havoc on up north roadways.
Multiple roadways and small bridges were washed away by floodwaters from Grand Traverse County on Lake Michigan to Presque Isle County on Lake Huron in the northeast Lower Peninsula.
Whitmer has placed the entire state under an energy emergency as some residents in northern Michigan have been urged to evacuate amid flooding that could worsen.
Flooding in rivers, creeks, lakes, field drains and ditches is being reported across Alcona, Alpena, Arenac, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Crawford, Emmet, Iosco, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Manistee, Missaukee, Montmorency, Ogemaw, Oscoda, Otsego, Presque Isle, Roscommon and Wexford counties.
fdonnelly@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Cheboygan River fluctuating after dam turbine goes back online
Reporting by Francis X. Donnelly, Max Bryan and Charles E. Ramirez, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
