<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14pt"><div>Saturday (10-13-12) - It's been a long week for the many people involved or<br>directly impacted by the sudden breech of Brown Bridge Dam a week ago today.<br>It's been a particularly long week for the property owners that received<br>flood damage. Molon and AMEC staff along with their insurance adjusters,<br>MDEQ staff and numerous others have spent the week inspecting the drawdown<br>structure trying to determine what went wrong. It's hard to say when we'll<br>know exactly what happened but it appears that there is some debris in the<br>area of the dewatering structure, including old sheet pile, from when the<br>dam was constructed nearly 100 years ago. Whether this debris had any<br>effect on the dewatering structure is yet to be determined by investigators.<br><br>During the past week Molon crews finished
clearing debris from public and<br>private bridges. AMEC brought in engineers that inspected every public and<br>private bridge for damage. The most urgent crossings to be inspected and<br>opened back up to traffic were the Garfield Road and River Road crossings.<br>Everything checked out ok and the roads were opened back up to traffic by<br>Monday afternoon. The engineers also inspected the private bridges and<br>only found a couple that received major damage from the event. One bridge<br>was actually taken out by the flood. <br><br>The river took a major hit but appears to have handled the floodwater fairly<br>well. During the past week AMEC, MDEQ staff and others have been collecting<br>biological data and mapping the extent of the high water. Biologists have<br>collected nearly 300 dead fish, approximately 85% warm water species from<br>the pond. MDEQ biologists also collected aquatic insects at
various<br>locations downstream of the dam. Closer to the dam they found both river<br>and pond species. The river species including mayflies, stoneflies, and<br>caddis flies were found in decent numbers and diversity which means the<br>river wasn't wiped out from an insect standpoint and the food base will<br>recover quickly. Within the pond itself by Sunday it was too late to<br>rescue the warm water fish including bass, blue gill, pike, bass, perch and<br>suckers that were stranded on the bottomlands. Eagles, heron, otters, sea<br>gulls and other animals have been feasting on the remains all week. A work<br>crew from the Grand Traverse Band spent the better part of two days<br>collecting turtles that were released back into nearby lakes and marshes.<br>These were mostly snappers and painted turtles. <br><br>The main concern right now is how cloudy the water continues to flow. This<br>is from the fine organic
material (silt) that's still in the small<br>backwaters of the remaining pond. Molon crews constructed a rock weir<br>approximately five foot high just above the dewatering structure once they<br>had the breech under control. They did this in an attempt to capture any<br>sediment they could. This silt is staying in suspension and flowing over<br>the rock weir. At the east end of the project in the sand delta area the<br>sand traps held and effectively stopped any major head cutting upstream.<br>Molon continues to clean out these traps on a daily basis. Biologists are<br>determining the best way to proceed given the current situation. <br><br>I said it before and I'll say it again it could have been much, much worse.<br>Had Molon crews backed up by Elmers trucks and other equipment not been able<br>to control the breech, a wall of water at least twice the estimated 5-foot<br>crest that did occur would have
swamped the valley possibly taking out roads<br>and causing much more property damage and who now what else. I asked Pat<br>Cole, owner of Brady's Bar who has a place on the river how his place faired<br>and he said "the river came up 5 feet and my place sits at 8-feet so it was<br>close but ok". I know many other property owners that came back or waited<br>out the flood reported a similar close call..I also know many weren't as<br>fortunate. It those folks I feel the most badly for. <br><br>I'd like to thank John Russell from Great Lakes Images for the great pics<br>from a Coast Guard helicopter from the day of the breech. Please call me<br>if you have any questions. Thanks. S.<br><br>Steve Largent<br>Boardman River Program Coordinator<br>Grand Traverse Conservation District<br>231.941.0960 Ext - 16<br>231.883.9960 <br>Your message is ready to be sent
with the following file or link<br>attachments:<br><br>Mike Walton and Al McDonald inspect dewatering struture. The sheet pile<br>near the back of the boat is from when the dam was constructed over 90 years<br>ago.<br>Pete Prouty shows the high water at his house<br>Pulling the first sheet pile in-front of the dewatering structure<br>Rock weir to help capture remaining sediment.<br>20121006 245<br>20121006 287<br>After over 90 years the new river flows in its old channel once again.<br>Breech begins inside dewatering structure approximately 20 minutes after<br>first sheet is pulled<br>Clearing debris from public road crossings</div><div><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18.6667px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;">Keeping the posting of pictures up to date has been a problem for us - <br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18.6667px; font-family:
arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18.6667px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;">Look for pictures on this site from now on:</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18.6667px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br></div><div class="yui_3_2_0_19_135016402445640" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18.6667px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nature_is_calling/sets/72157631744898788/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/nature_is_calling/sets/72157631744898788/</a><br></div><div class="yui_3_2_0_19_135016402445640" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18.6667px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent;
font-style: normal;"><br></div><div class="yui_3_2_0_19_135016402445640" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18.6667px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;">NOTE from Steve via the line line: The pictures I attached to this email are NOT on the Flicker site yet. They will be posted - hopefully - on Monday.<br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18.6667px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br>Note: To protect against computer viruses, e-mail programs may prevent<br>sending or receiving certain types of file attachments. Check your e-mail<br>security settings to determine how attachments are handled.</div></div></body></html>