Sanford Lake may soon start to look more like a lake and less like a muddy prairie with a stream flowing through it.
In May 2020, after days of heavy rain, the Edenville Dam failed, unleashing a torrent of water downstream that overwhelmed the Sanford Dam.
The resulting flood drained Sanford Lake, and inundated parts of Midland and Gladwin counties, causing tens of millions of dollars in damage and displacing thousands of residents.
Since then, the Four Lakes Task Force has overseen repairs to four century-old dams connected to the flood. The Sanford Dam is the first to be restored.
Starting this week, the task force plans to start slowly refilling Sanford Lake by about a foot a day. The process is expected to take until Memorial Day.
Work continues on the other three dams affected by the 2020 disaster. It is expected to in a couple years before the project is complete and the last of the drained lakes is refilled.
Meanwhile, the legal fight over who’s responsible for the dam’s failures and who should pay continues.
Earlier this year, the Michigan Court of Claims began reviewing a lawsuit brought by thousands of property owners affected by the 2020 flood. The lawsuit claims the state government is liable for causing the dam failure and flooding disaster.
Property owners lost a different legal fight after courts ruled county governments could impose a multi-year special assessment tax to fund roughly half of the estimated nearly $400 million project to the repair the dams and restore the lakes.
