[brcs-announce] BB Dam update from Steve Largent

[Norman R. Fred]

Monday (10-8-12)  Wow..what a couple days it's been.    First off I want to
say thank God that no one was injured or worse.  The response by everyone
involved was swift which averted what could have been a much worse
situation.  It was truly amazing how everyone pulled together.   What
started out as being a day where we hoped to begin the controlled drawdown
of Brown Bridge pond quickly turned into something much, much different..the
power of nature had something else in mind.   What was supposed to happen
over a course of about 20 days beginning Saturday took place in about 7
hours.   Beginning today investigators are inspecting what went wrong with
the drawdown down structure.  Until then we can only speculate.  

Currently everything is stable at Brown Bridge.  There's just a small pond
left upstream of the dam.  Molon created a weir above the dam to capture
sediment as it works its way downstream.  

My main concern right now are the people that received flood damage
downstream.  County Emergency Coordinator Dan Scott set up a hotline for
people to call who received property damage.  That number is 231.995.6059.


Molon worked all day Sunday clearing debris from public road and railroad
crossings and private bridges.  There are still some large trees blocking
the river that we plan to remove over the next few days. Their crews have
done an amazing job given the situation.

It's too early to say and the river is still murky, but the river doesn't look
too bad.  We have found some dead fish but by no means was the river wiped
out.  I'll know more later this week.   I want to thank Loraine Anderson
from the Record Eagle and Chuck Lombardo with the Implementation Team for
keeping everyone posted.   Loraine's articles have been a fair and accurate
account of what's happened so far.

As always, please don't hesitate to call me if you have any questions.   S.

Steve Largent
Boardman River Program Coordinator
Grand Traverse Conservation District
231.941.0960 Ext - 16
231.883.9960          
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Norm's Note:

I can not forward Steve's photos.  It takes too much bandwidth on my server to send 100 people these files.  Please look for them on the GTCD Blog.


Molon & Elmers working together to stem flow
Molon clears railroad bridge
Molon worker and rainbow
Rainbow touching the bottomland of Brown Bridge and stumps of trees that 

haven't been seen in a 100 years
Beitner Road Crossing
Decks, docks, and debris caught on Whispering Waters Bed & Breakfast Bridge
High water at Brown Bridge Road
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