Save Lake A Part 2: Your Thoughts? Coco Soodek posted 4 months ago
Free for all discussion about your ideas about strategy to save Lake Allegan.
Delete my topic
Very helpful meeting. Lots of ideas. I do not want the Dam taken out. I see all kinds of problems. Starting with the end of Lake Allegan. What will happen to Allegan Dam Road...will it become a dead end road? The taxes paid to maintain Valley Township will be diminished with all the property values being affected. The recreation opportunities will vanish. We are "finally" making progress with cleaning the lake of unwanted or to aggressive species. All the efforts and money will be for nothing. Removing the Dam and allowing the river to just slowly meander will allow all the PCB to collect and slowly move down the river to Lake Michigan. The river upstream is already filling in with silt from the removal of dams up stream. It is barely navigable by boats already. Let us not be complacent and let Consumer's Power off the hook for "not" keeping routine maintenance on the structure itself. We have all PAID for the upkeep in our electric bills. I cannot imagine another company with less clout willing to purchase the Dam and all the problems it has. Patricia Miner commented 4 months ago Hi Patricia: That's why we have to get organized and get going now. Will you write some letters and fill out the questionnaire? Coco Soodek commented 4 months agoDelete my comment Yes. I have already started with Senator Stabenow. I will continue with letters again soon. Senator Stabenow is an environmentalist and I'm sure she will be on our side. Patricia Miner commented 4 months ago Hopefully this link works. I found this out on the web. https://publicsectorconsultants.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/MRP_Report_April2007_revised_11-9-07.pdf I'm not sure if this helps but I found this interesting. Especially since it was created by Public Sector Consultants. The same company Consumers hired to run the meetings. I think there might be information that can be used in the fight! Mike Roth commented 4 months ago Mike very helpful document. when i asked e. riggs one of the PCI consultants if they were in for a longer assignment she said no. presentation slides mentioned website coming online, we should hope to see and know who's creating that content. Katherine Dwyer commented 4 months ago Thanks Katherine, I know it's an older document but I'm sure most of it is still valid today. The legal information was a bit over my head but maybe someone with that type of knowledge can use it. Mike Roth commented 4 months ago Today I published an article about the possible dam removal, focusing on the likely loss of the amazing out-my-window wildlife watching that is the focus of my blog, Tales From a West Michigan Wood. Feel free to share widely. I posted links on Facebook and on Twitter. The post includes a video highlighting wildlife drawn to Eagle Island's shallows on my side of the lake, shallows that would likely become swamp or mud should the dam be removed. That video is on Vimeo and available to download and share. [https://vimeo.com/754354688] Here's a link to the blog post: https://www.caroldoeringer.com/from-shallows-to-swamp/#more-3470 Carol Doeringer commented 4 months ago carol, you should send the video clip directly to eriggs@publicsectorconsultants and to Norm Kapala, his email is listed as a consumers VP on LA association page. this video should be the face of our campaign!!! Please send. Katherine Dwyer commented 4 months ago Katherine, can do. I already sent it to Josh Burgett. He responded to an email I sent to Consumers' CEO, and Josh and I are scheduled to have a video chat follow-up discussion tomorrow. I'll find out if Josh took time to read the blog and view the video, and either way I'll follow up as you suggest. Carol Doeringer commented 4 months ago https://mymlsa.org/government-and-legal-issues/special-assessment-districts/ Katherine Dwyer commented 4 months ago https://www.four-lakes-taskforce-mi.com/special-assessment-district.html Katherine Dwyer commented 4 months ago Has anyone read this 2017 document? It's a lengthy study of the impact of removing two dams in NE Michigan. The research seems comprehensive and includes estimating the property-value loss to residents adjacent to two ponds and a lake. https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/136563/309_BlackRiverDams_2017.pdf?sequence=1 Carol Doeringer commented 4 months ago carol, your on a roll! the info we need to read. gives us hope. Katherine Dwyer commented 4 months ago This link to the report prepared by Public Sector Consultants, posted by Mike Roth (above), was very informative. Reading it serves to show how complicated Dam removal will be. I thought the section on removal cost was interesting. It essentially said the complexity of dam removal puts the cost of removal above what dam "owners" can afford. This implies "owners" will need external funding to perform removal-something that, if I read it correctly, didn't exist in 2007 (when the report was written). Does that funding exist now? Has CE applied for help? Robert Speaker commented 3 months ago Hi Robert, the financial avenues have broadened for CE but still very expensive. CE 2021 decommissioning proposal for Hardy dam was $446M vs. 400M in proposed capital upgrades. this is thetheir issue, do they spend to upgrade via approval on reimbursement thru state wide rate hike or get out. different for Calkins, capital expenditures not as significant, low risk dam. FERC recognizes relicensing is expensive but in June 2004 affirmed it's ability to issue uneconomic licenses. Katherine Dwyer commented 3 months ago