The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy received notification early Tuesday morning that there was a problem at a dam in White Cloud.
The city is working to repair failed stoplogs that caused significant changes in water levels both in a pond upstream of the dam, and the river flowing downstream. Stoplogs hold back water in the dam.
EGLE reports that flooding is not expected for homes that are downstream. Local officials have reported the dam is currently stable and will replace the failed stoplogs within days.
They also say that downstream residents should expect water to rise two feet over the next 24 hours.
“It’s always a little dicey when a high hazard dam has a problem because those are the ones that are the most problematic if they were to fail,” said Hugh MacDiarmid, Communications Manager at MI EGLE. “But this situation seems under control and should be fixed in a rather short order.”
The dam was built in 1872 and rebuilt in 1920 after it was destroyed by flooding, and reconstructed in 1990.
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