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 finish removal, said Bruce Levey, the township's supervisor.
A recent pair of grants - $1.2 million from the state's Environment, Great Lakes and Energy department and $225,000 from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources - will pay for most of the planning and engineering work but Levey said the actual removal of the remaining dam pieces will likely require more money.
The township still has at least one more large grant application outstanding, which could close the gap, Levey said.
"The dam is continuing to fail and every time we get a big rain, it fails more," he said.
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 construction materials were timber and stone. Concrete was added more than 100 years ago.
It was one of the oldest dams in the state and was considered a risk prior to the failure. But the small township lacked the funds needed to make repairs, estimated in a 2010 township study to be well over $800,000.
Township officials have decided to not replace the dam, which kept the community eligible for the DNR fisheries grant. Fish will be allowed to swim upstream where they previously couldn't, Levey said.
The supervisor said he remains concerned that the biggest risk of the dam now is that someone could climb on or near the dam and get hurt. State officials have said the dam does not pose a flooding risk to downstream homes.
There is a federally-protected group of mussels downstream, which will need to be removed and fostered while the dam parts are removed, and replaced once the dam's remnants are gone, Levey said.
Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or 517-267-0415.
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