$1M grant allows dam removal to begin

Region

December 3, 2010

BY BRIAN McGILLIVARY bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Fri Dec 03, 2010, 07:23 AM EST

TRAVERSE CITY — -- A $1 million grant from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust will allow Traverse City to begin removal of Brown Bridge Dam on the Boardman River next spring.

Brown Bridge is the first and farthest upstream of three Boardman River dams targeted for removal. The city already amassed $1.1 million in federal grants for the dams project through the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, but the project must begin in 2011 to use that money.

"This funding is absolutely critical," said state fisheries biologist Todd Kalish, who chairs a Traverse City and Grand Traverse County project implementation team. "We definitely want to show our appreciation for the Fishery Trust to pursue this project, which will enhance the environmental, economic and social status of the Boardman River watershed for this and future generations."

Removing Brown Bridge Dam will have the greatest impact because it alone will restore 156 acres of river wetlands, Kalish said.

"The removal of the three Boardman River dams will be the largest dam removal in Michigan's history and the largest wetlands restoration in the Great Lakes Basin," said Erin McDonough, a Great Lakes Fishery Trust Board trustee who sponsored the local grant application.

Consumers Energy and Detroit Edison established the Fishery Trust as a means of compensation for fish kills at a jointly owned facility in Ludington. It's awarded more than $45 million in grants since its inception in 1996.

The award follows a $476,000 grant from the Fishery Trust to help fund an engineering and feasibility study of dam removal that cost almost $3 million, according to the local grant application.

The combined grants should fully fund the removal of Brown Bridge Dam and allow the city to bypass the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said City Manager Ben Bifoss.

"It's huge," Bifoss said of the grant. "Without it we would still be with the Corps' process, and the expectation is that it would take four or five years."

The other two dams, Sabin and Boardman, are owned by Grand Traverse County and are slated for removal by the Corps of Engineers. Kalish said Union Street Dam in Traverse City will require modification, and the goal is to find grants to address two dams while the Corps of Engineers covers the other two.

Brown Bridge, Sabin, and Boardman all generated electric power until 2006, when Traverse City Light & Power decided to cease its hydropower operation. Brown Bridge Dam's removal will replace the 191-acre Brown Bridge Pond, part of the 1,310-acre Brown Bridge Quiet Area, with about 1.5 miles of river.

Bifoss said the process calls for the city to begin draining the pond by about 15 feet next spring. Water behind the dam stands about 32 feet high, and the initial reduction would take about 90 days.

A temporary, or coffer dam, then would be built downstream while crews deconstruct Brown Bridge Dam. The coffer dam subsequently would be removed in stages.

The entire process could be completed by 2012, Bifoss said.