DUPLAIN TOWNSHIP – The failed Elsie Dam, which was breached in August, has received about $1.5 million in grants but will likely need another half million dollars to complete the removal, said Bruce Levey, township supervisor.
A recent pair of grants — $1.2 million from the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and $225,000 from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources — will pay for most of the planning and engineering work, but Levey said that the actual removal of the remaining dam sections will probably require more money.
The city still has at least one major grant application open, which could fill the gap, Levey said.
“The dam keeps failing and every time we get a big rainstorm it fails even more,” he said.
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The dam on the Maple River, just west of the village of Elsie, was originally built in 1840, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ National Inventory of Dams. Original building materials were wood and stone. Concrete was added more than 100 years ago.
It was one of the oldest dams in the state and was considered a hazard before the failure. But the small community did not have the resources needed to make repairs, which a 2010 community study estimated at more than $800,000.
City officials decided not to replace the dam, making the community eligible for the DNR fisheries grant. Fish will be allowed to swim upstream where previously that was not possible, Levey said.
The regulator said he remains concerned that the biggest risk from the dam now is that someone could climb on or near the dam and be injured. State officials have said the dam poses no flood risk to homes downstream.
There is a federally protected group of mussels downstream, which will need to be removed and cared for while the dam sections are removed, and replaced once the remains of the dam are gone, Levey said.
Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or 517-267-0415.
This article originally appeared in Lansing State Journal: Duplain Twp. raised $1.5 for the removal of the Elsie Dam; fundraising continues
