NEWAYGO COUNTY, Mich. — Residents in Newaygo County took part in a community input session on Monday, about the future of some dams in the area. The session came after Consumers Energy announced it was putting its 13-dam fleet on the market.
The list of dams includes the Croton and Hardy dams in Newaygo County.
Consumers Energy says that it currently operates the dams at a $152 million loss. Last year, the company announced four potential plans for the 13-dam fleet. The plans were tearing them down, re-licensing them, selling them, or putting up an alternative structure at the sites.
According to Consumers Energy, when it comes to natural rate increases, they say it would cost residential customers around $43 extra a year, should they re-license the hydro-fleet.
On Monday, officials from Consumers Energy were at the session to give a presentation on what the potential closures would look like. They also answered questions from residents.
“I want to be clear, like we have not made any decisions,” said Josh Burgett, executive director of community engagement for Consumers Energy. “So, we haven’t really looked at a lot of that stuff. But we know that if we were to remove our assets and return the river, there would be a period of time that we have to restore the river to its natural habitat. But I think there’ll be opportunities for the community to envision a future that doesn’t have a dam and has a naturally flowing river.”
One group that was at the session was the Muskegon River Watershed Assembly, who says that no matter what, people are going to be affected.
“It’s going to be a big impact,” said Muskegon River Watershed Assembly’s Scott Faulkner. “I mean, if the, if the dam stay in place, there are environmental problems, if the dams are removed, there are environmental problems and opportunities. So, we tried to do is really weigh the risks and the benefits of whatever they’re trying to do. And understanding the reality that these dams were all engineered to last about 50 years, now there are 100. I don’t think anyone in this room is naive enough to think that 50 years in the future they’re going to be functioning like they are today, is very unlikely.”
At this point, the request for the sale proposal is for all 13 facilities. However, Consumers Energy says that it could be open to individual sales.
