Editor’s Note: This story was modified from its original form to correct a misspelling.
Huron-Clinton Metroparks is considering what to do with a nearly century-old dam it owns on the Huron River in Flat Rock — including potentially removing it. But that’s an option that has many in the nearby community not willing to go with the flow.
The more-than-500-foot Flat Rock Dam was built in the late 1920s by Henry Ford for hydropower generation for his headlamp plant there, a purpose it served until 1950. Ford Motor Co. the following year sold the dam to the Huron-Clinton Metroparks Authority for $25,000. The southeast Michigan parks operator acquired the dam to maintain the approximately 250-acre water impoundment behind it and adjoining natural areas for recreational use.
Generations have since built a life around the impoundment.
“This is area residents’ heartthrob, their life,” said Marcie Grzywacz, a councilwoman for the city of Rockwood just downriver from Flat Rock and the dam.
“They have spent time fishing there, at the parks, kayaking and canoeing. Their life is based around the water.”
But the Flat Rock Dam, and the smaller Huroc Dam just below it, are the first significant barrier to fish traveling upstream from Lake Erie. Though a fish ladder was added at the dams in the late 1990, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources still has found that the dams restrict fish passage and limit reproduction for a number of prized sport fish species, including lake sturgeon, walleye and white bass.
Options for the dams
A letter from the DNR Fisheries Division to the Metroparks Authority shows DNR officials encouraging the removal of the Flat Rock Dam as far back as November 1984.
In 2022, Metroparks, in partnership with the DNR, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, Huron River Watershed Council and the city of Flat Rock successfully submitted for a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Regional Partnership Grant through the congressionally appropriated Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The grant was used to conduct a feasibility study for alternative options for the Flat Rock and Huroc Dams “that would benefit the local community and natural habitats,” a report by Public Sector Consultants, a contractor hired as part of the review, states.
The draft feasibility study was released in February, with a local public meeting then held in March. Alternatives considered include:
A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service review indicates the potential dam removals would not be expected to cause a significant increase in invasive, sport fish-damaging sea lamprey farther up the Huron River, said Greg McClinchey, spokesman for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
Huron-Clinton Metroparks spokeswoman Danielle Mauter emphasized that no alternative has been decided upon.
“This means that currently there is no proposal to remove the dam,” she said. “The step we are on is still the feasibility study, which is only the very first step in complex projects like these.”
Residents want to protect lifestyle built around stream
Any alternative would still require future study and design phases and would have to comply with permitting requirements from multiple departments and agencies before moving forward, Mauter said.
But just the listing of the complete removal of the dams as an option has aroused the passions of many in the community. A Facebook group, “Save the Flat Rock Dam,” has 1,200 members. A corresponding petition drive calling for preserving the dams, organized by Grzywacz, has 350 signatories and rising. “Save Flat Rock Dam” signs are showing up on lawns near the impoundment.
Grzywacz said she took up the movement and petition after “people were just talking about it and not really taking action.” Many of her constituents in Rockwood are just as concerned as those in Flat Rock.
“Removal of those dams changes the lifestyles and quality of life dramatically for those living nearby,” she said. “Property values would decrease, and that water would rush downriver. It’s a major concern for all surrounding cities, not just Flat Rock.”
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Kelly Trombly, supervisor of nearby Huron Township, said she is “firmly opposed to the dam’s removal,” citing “the significant adverse impacts this decision could have on our residents and the community at large.”
Shannon Barrett lives on James Avenue in Flat Rock, directly upstream from the dam, in her home of more than 12 years.
“I bought this home as my forever home, and the river as it is was the crucial part of my decision,” she said.
“We kayak, we paddleboard. The grandkids come over, the nieces and nephews, and we just relax outside with the nature — the swans, the geese, the birds, the fish. All of that is going to be impacted if they do the full removal of this dam.”
Through family living elsewhere in Michigan, she has seen dam removals leave behind “a stench wasteland.”
A 2020 Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy inspection of the Flat Rock Dam listed its condition as “fair.”
“Why even touch the dams?” Barrett said. “If it’s about the fish ladder, improve the fish ladder. Use that grant money to maintain the dam.”
Community feedback obtained in public meetings in late 2023 and March 6 of this year, and public comments submitted through March 17, will be incorporated into the draft feasibility study, with further public meetings coming this summer, Mauter said.
Contact Keith Matheny: kmatheny@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Potential removal of Flat Rock dam on Huron River has communities nearby concerned
Reporting by Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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