Saturday, May 23, 2020

3 Weeks Before Dam Break, Mich. AG Sued to RAISE Lake Level to Save Mussels

In her ongoing audition to be Joe Biden's veep pick, Michigan Governess Gretchen Whitmer all but convicted a private dam owner for the disastrous floods that struck the middle of the state last Wednesday.

It wasn't the dam company that was trying to save a few clams-it was Whitmer's radical attorney general, Dana Nessel.

The lake level three feet in order to save mussels-both endangered and common-and in their response, the dam company cited safety as a reason for not doing so.

Three weeks before the 96-year-old dam failed this week amid heavy rains and caused the worst flood in Midland history, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel sued its owner, alleging it illegally lowered Wixom Lake in 2018 and 2019, killing "Thousands if not millions, of freshwater mussels."

Friends with property there tell me there has been plenty of tension between the dam owner and residents since at least the 1990s.

The dam's owner, Boyce Hydro Power LLC, claims Michigan pressured it to raise lake levels before the flood and the company took steps to lower them because "Mis-operation could pose a significant risk to the Village of Sanford, Northwood University, the City of Midland, and other downstream areas," according to a lawsuit last month.

The dam owners were singled out; her Attorney General was not.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-forsmark/2020/05/22/ignoring-warnings-mich-ag-sued-to-raise-lake-level-ahead-of-dam-break-to-protect-mussels-n418055

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