Six years after historic flooding caused by the failure of the Edenville, Sanford, Smallwood and Secord Dams devastated parts of Midland and Gladwin Counties, significant progress has been made in restoring the dams.
Sanford Lake returns
In early May, Sanford Lake rose back to its legal level of just over 630 feet. The Four Lakes Task Force, the dams’ owners, refilled the lake foot by foot. The process was aided by heavy bouts of rainfall.
Dave Kepler, president of the FLTF, said there are a few key differences in the lake before and after the floods despite the legal level being the same.
“The shoreline is different,” Kepler said. “There's a lot of erosion and a lot of projects to put rock on the shorelines. There was a lot of sediment shifting on the bottom of the lake. So, the depths of the lake in some places is going to be shallower and some places are going to be deeper.”
Amid the refilling process, debris from the lake's bottom floated to the surface. Kepler said the task force anticipated this, and is focusing on clearing debris from the main lake so it doesn’t disturb the dam.
“We don't want to come back twice,” Kepler said. “So, the channels, especially the ones kind of at the downstream end of the lake by the dam, probably will be the last areas to clean out.”
Sanford Lake is open for community use just in time for summer. The water itself has been deemed safe and will continue to be monitored by the FLTF.
Kepler said fish have already come back to the lake through the Tittabawassee River.
“There's an expectation that the smaller fish, the panfish, bluegills, would come back pretty readily because they're already in the river,” he said. “ It'll take longer for the predator fish to come back.”
The Sanford Lake Association and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources are responsible for keeping up with the fishing scene and monitoring habitat health.
The FLTF is asking that people still exercise caution when out on the water.
The battle for accountability
As previously reported by WCMU in April, 2,000 property owners impacted by the 2020 floods faced a loss in court after a Michigan Court of Claims judge ruled the state was not liable in the failure of the Edenville Dam.
The property owners had sued the state’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and the Department of Natural Resources.
Following the ruling, Ven Johnson, president of the law firm representing the property owners, said in a written statement to WCMU, the "fight is far from over."
"Our attorneys will appeal this decision and present the facts we believe warrant a second review," Johnson wrote in April. "We will continue to fight for the people of Mid-Michigan, who still live with the damage caused through no fault of their own.”
Special assessments
In order to fund the repair of the four dams, the FLTF implemented two special assessments that would appear on property owners’ tax bills.
Midland and Gladwin County leadership allowed the implementation despite swift backlash from affected residents, who tried and failed to fight the assessments in court.
Meanwhile, State Rep. Bill G. Schuette, R-Midland, introduced several bipartisan bills in the state House that, if passed, would alleviate the financial burden assessments place on low-income seniors or those with permanent disabilities.
“The government or entity that is imposing the special assessment would be kept whole on the cost of the assessment, and the property owner would be able to defer the cost, and the state would cover the balance, but then get repaid when the property changes hands,” Schuette said.
Around $220 million in state and federal funding has been put toward the cost of reconstructing the dams. But, Schuette said, the cost to homeowners through the special assessments has a price tag around $200 million.
WCMU previously reported the assessments would likely remain on tax bills for over four decades.
Waiting on FEMA
Sanford Village Commissioner Carl Hamann said a few weeks ago, the village received its remaining $220,000 in Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursements.
Hamann said the reimbursements came at just the right time, helping village leadership relieve stress on Sanford’s budget.
As of January, a spokesperson from Midland Center for the Arts said it was knee-deep in the FEMA reimbursement process but was unsure of the timeline, and the amount they would be receiving.
Midland Center could not be reached for an update.
Still work to be done
Kepler said work on the Sanford Dam is projected to officially be completed in February 2027. The dam itself is complete, and at this point crews are cleaning up.
But the job’s not done yet for the Secord, Smallwood and Edenville Dams.
The FLTF estimates the following dates for substantial completion:
- Smallwood Dam: July 2026
- Secord Dam: Sept. 2026
- Edenville Dam: Sept. 2027
Kepler said Edenville will take the longest because its the largest, and two rivers feed into it.
WCMU’s AJ Jones and Emma George-Griffin contributed to this report.
