Should taxpayers foot the bill for restoring the Midland dams? [View all]

SANFORD—Months after buying a six-boat marina and bait shop on Sanford Lake, Linda Shephard had just received permission to open when the rain started falling and refused to stop.

She sat on a picnic table and watched the floodwater rise over her seawall and inch up her property. Then came the text alert: The Edenville Dam, an impoundment that trapped 21.5 billion gallons of water just upstream, had failed.

“All of a sudden, I saw tires floating down the lake, and a little shed in the water,” she said. “That’s when I got up and got out.”

By the time she returned two days later, her dream of summers spent trading fish stories with anglers while she topped off their gas tanks had been washed away.

Read more: https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/should-taxpayers-foot-bill-restoring-midland-dams