The last time a dam was removed in Grand Traverse County there was a flood, followed by lawsuits. That was 2012.

Now, phase two of the Boardman River Dams & Restoration Project is scheduled to get underway this spring with the construction of the new Cass Road Bridge near the intersection of Cass and Keystone roads in Garfield Township.

Motorists will face an approximate three-month road closure starting in May when the one-lane Cass Road Bridge is replaced with a new bridge. That bridge will cross the river’s new, natural channel when the Boardman Dam is scheduled for removal in the summer of 2017.

Aside from it being an entirely different project and location, and altogether different circumstances, a new drawdown approach for the large dam impoundment on the south side of Cass Road is also in place.

“The primary concern has been over the drawdown approach,” says Dan DeVaun, a Traverse City engineer with AECOM, the company hired by the county to handle the dam’s removal and river restoration. During the drawdown process in the fall of 2012 before the Brown Bridge Dam removal, a temporary dewaterting structure failed, flooding more than 60 properties down river.

In this case, the impoundment will be dewatered with either a siphon or a pump.

“It will be bypassing the flow over and around the dam in enclosed conduits,” DeVaun says. “If that system were somehow to fail, the worst case scenario is the impoundment fills up and floods the [Keystone] pond.”

On Tues., Feb. 9, representatives from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) will conduct a public hearing – part of the permitting process for the dam removal and subsequent restoration work – from 7-9pm at the Boardman River Nature Center (1450 Cass Road).

Luke Trumble, a dam safety engineer with the MDEQ, will be one of the permit reviewers leading the hearing.

Trumble says while all nature of comments will be recorded, some comments will have more weight than others.

General comments either in favor or against the project will have less bearing, Trumble explains, than input that could directly impact the permitting decision. (Grand Traverse County’s permit application can be viewed here.)

“We’re charged with administering the law,” says Tumble. “Is the project in accordance with the law? Is there another issue we need to consider?”

The public will also have a chance to learn more about the project itself at a public information session hosted by the Boardman River Dams & Restoration Project Implementation Team and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before the hearing from 5-7pm.

Pending permit approval, drawdown of the impoundment starts in June 2017 followed by the damn removal and re-routing of the river channel, removal of the powerhouse, reconstruction of Cass Road (which will require another closure) and restoration work.

This second phase of the project recently got a financial shot in the arm when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, via the Environmental Protection Agency, agreed in October to put $8 million toward the Boardman Dam removal to help in the face of financial shortfalls.

The third and final dam removal – Sabin Dam – is slated for 2018, followed by a modification to the Union Street dam. Once completed, the project is expected to reconnect more than 160 miles of “blue ribbon” stream and reestablish the coldwater aquatic ecosystem of the river.

Photo courtesy of John Russell, Great Lakes Images LLC