By Amanda Durish Cook

FERC last week ordered the shutdown of a Michigan hydroelectric project over longtime safety violations — the most significant of which relate to inadequate spillway capacity.

The commission will revoke the license for Boyce Hydro’s 4.8-MW Edenville Dam in northern Michigan on March 1 following its Feb. 15 cease generation order and denial of the company’s request for rehearing on the issue (10808-058).

FERC dismissed Boyce’s arguments that the commission didn’t consider corrective measures the dam had already taken; that it doesn’t have authority to order a dam to shut down; and that the cease generation order was arbitrary and capricious. FERC has been threatening to close Edenville since late last spring.

The commission last month gave Boyce until March 1 to correct violations, some of which that have persisted since 2004, including:

• Failing to increase spillway capacity to address the increased likelihood of more frequent flooding;
• Performing unauthorized dam repairs and excavation;
• Neglecting to file a public safety plan or follow its own water monitoring plan; and
• Failing to acquire all property rights and to construct required recreation facilities near the dam.

FERC has repeatedly told Boyce to construct two auxiliary spillways to reduce the risk of flooding, “a grave danger to the public,” the commission wrote.

“Boyce Hydro’s license includes terms and conditions concerning dam safety, property rights, water quality, public recreation and safety, and other areas of public concern,” the commission said. “Boyce Hydro has a long history of noncompliance with those terms and conditions … [and] failed to comply … except for the obligations to acquire and document certain property rights (although the lack of designs for the new and revised spillways makes it difficult to determine if it has acquired all necessary property rights).”

The commission in January granted Boyce a temporary stay of shutdown until the beginning of March so the company can use the dam’s powerhouse to pass flows to alleviate ice formation on spillway gates during winter. (See Michigan Dam Faces Shutdown over Longtime Safety Concerns.)

FERC said Edenville’s current spillway can only currently handle 50% of a probable maximum flood.

The commission ordered Boyce last year to file plans to construct spillways and provide public access and recreational facilities by late 2017, but the filings never materialized, it said. Although Boyce had hired an engineering firm to design a new spillway and promised to create an escrow account for 50% of its gross revenues to fund construction, FERC found those plans insufficient, saying that it would take the company two years to save enough money to fund spillway construction.

“Given that the public has already been at risk for more than 13 years due to the licensee’s refusal to remediate the project spillways, we cannot accept a proposal that will perpetuate the problem even longer,” FERC said.

The commission expressed disbelief that Boyce’s lengthy history of noncooperation would change now.

“After weighing the relevant factors, commission staff determined that the violations required prompt action and that the licensee’s persistent pattern of noncompliance provided strong evidence that it would not make serious efforts to come into compliance absent an order disrupting its operation,” the commission wrote.

FERC said it didn’t take the economic impacts of a shutdown lightly but said the move is “a situation of Boyce Hydro’s own making.”

Boyce can seek a rehearing of the order before a FERC administrative law judge within 30 days.