Dam disaster averted in historic flood

Story by Allison Scarbrough, News Editor

Photos by Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief

HESPERIA — The Hesperia Dam was seriously threatened by high waters of the raging White River in what Village Manager Mike Farber calls a “200-year flood,” but fortunately the structure survived what was likely the most critical night of heavy rainfall Wednesday night, April 16.

“I’d say the dam is going to hold, because we got the stop boards out, but it’s just a matter of monitoring it now. We saved the dam.

“We got the boards all out of it,” said Farber. By removing the boards, it deepened the dam to allow more water to flow through. Officials continue to monitor the situation “to make sure that it doesn’t go over.” 

“They call them ‘stop logs,’ but they’re actually just boards that slide down over the back of the dam and that control the height of the pond behind it,” said the village leader. “Normally, when it’s not raining, we have boards in there, and then when it rains, you pull them out. We’ve been getting so much rain, we couldn’t get them out. So last night, we had a mini excavator out there pulling them out of the dam, and we pulled them all out, so we can pass as much water through our dam as possible. Before we got the boards out, we were really concerned.”

It was “all hands on deck” Wednesday as several organizations swooped in to help keep the dam intact. The Hesperia Area Fire Department, Oceana County Emergency Management, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), engineers from the Fleis and Vendenbrink firm and the Oceana County Road Commission were on scene. The village also received some “muscle” from the Hesperia High School varsity and JV baseball teams, who helped fill approximately 300 sandbags. “The village residents have been volunteering — the whole community pulled together.”

“Yesterday the water levels on the White River at the Hesperia Dam rose rapidly,” said Oceana County Emergency Manager Troy Maloney. “It rose so fast, there was too much head pressure on the gates for the village to be able to pull the boards to release more water flow. This threatened overtopping the dam. So, there was a coordinated effort between the village, the Hesperia Area Fire Department, the EGLE dam safety crew, Fleis and Vendenbrink engineering and emergency management to use a mini excavator to go out on the dam and remove the boards. So now, all six gates are wide open, and water is flowing. But we still have water rising on the White River, so there is more localized flooding, which pushed a bunch of water downriver. The National Weather Service did issue a flood watch for that area, and that continues for another 24 hours. We did issue some public alerting for the people in that area that they need to be prepared to evacuate. We do not plan on doing any evacuations. Water levels are maintaining, but we will continue to see localized flooding downriver of the dam.

“As of right now as long as Mother Nature plays well, we’re good, but water will continue to rise for about the next 12 hours,” said Maloney around noon Thursday. “The dam is secure, and the spill gates are working properly. It is overtopping in the auxiliary spillway, which it is meant to do. The engineers and the EGLE dam people are monitoring all of it to make sure we remain stable, but at this point in time the concern would be the downriver flooding in Oceana County. There is some flooding in the Village of Hesperia on the Newaygo side. Right now, the fire department is going around and doing some very initial inspections to see how many houses are affected by that, and they are also filling sandbags on the north side of the swimming hole, so if the public wants sandbags, they can get sandbags there.

“They still need to be prepared to evacuate if necessary, but we’re not expecting to have to issue an evacuation order—but we want everybody to be prepared in case,” the emergency manager said. “We are also seeing flooded roadways, and if the road is flooded, turn around.” Do not disregard the signage and barriers.

Residents who live near the Hesperia Dam were told to prepare to evacuate due to potentially life-threatening flooding Wednesday. “We made them aware that they could have to leave quickly—in case it was really bad— was our biggest priority,” said Farber. The village president said he believes a couple of residents evacuated, but the majority have not—as of Thursday morning. He also said only minor flooding has occurred in a few homes located downstream from the dam in Newaygo County. “It’s not like you’re going to have houses off foundations or anything like that. We have an inter-county drain here, and there was too much water for it, so it flooded some homes on Newaygo County’s side. The amount of water that we got, it just couldn’t take it.” 

The village sits on the county line, so the western half of it is in Oceana, and the eastern portion is situated in Newaygo County.” Other structures in the village received some minor flooding, he said.

The heavy rainfall has been relentless over the past few days. “Last night, we got around 2 inches again, and I think the night before was 3-4 inches. Steelhead are going over the spillway right now.”

The dam has not been this compromised by high water in 40 years, said Farber. “It reached the outer bank one time in ‘86 to let the water off, so it didn’t break the dam, and that’s what we did here. We pulled all the boards out, and the spillway is working, so it’s doing what it’s supposed to do. Our big thing was getting the boards out of it.”

Plans are in the works to eventually replace the dam with a new structure, because it is a sea lamprey barrier, said Farber. “We’re working on grants right now to replace the whole structure. They don’t want (the sea lampreys, which are an invasive species) to go up above here—there’s 80 miles of stream above Hesperia, and this is one of their main streams that lamprey spawn in. They poison them here below, so they don’t want them to be able to go all the way up, so they want to keep this dam here.” It is anticipated that the dam will be replaced in 2028.

“This one here cannot pass a 200-year flood. It is the problem. The new one will. Right now, all the water should go through, and it can’t.”

The dam, which is maintained by the village, has existed since the 1800s, he said. “It’s been here a long time.” It is inspected every five years by EGLE, along with random inspections. The dam has never failed in all its years of existence, said the village president. 

Two bridges over the river were closed, but one has since reopened. “We reopened the Michigan Road bridge to Loop Road, but we still have the Maple Island shut down because the water is coming up close to touching it. The state makes us close them if the water touches them.” Farber said he anticipates the bridge will reopen Friday.

“Minor flooding is occurring and minor flooding is forecast,” states the National Weather Service. “The current flooding is a result of the general high water conditions on the White River. Local officials and emergency management report water remains very high on the White River in Hesperia.”

A flood warning issued by NWS is in effect in the area until early Saturday morning, April 18. More rain is forecast for Saturday. A flash flood warning remains in effect until Friday morning.

“Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, and we’re hoping that will slow us down a little bit and it’s going to help us,” said Farber of Friday’s weather. 

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