The rock-lined tailrace that meanders through the property owned
by Wendy Weller would most likely be dramatically impacted by the
removal of the dam.
By Tom Kirvan
Legal News
The United States has a long and conflicted history with dams, so much so that the mere mention of the word can arouse a range of emotions that runs from the inherently profane, to the dynamic, to the romantic.
Of course, there was nothing romantic about the failure of the South Fork Dam in the hills of Pennsylvania, an 1889 tragedy that nearly wiped the city of Johnstown from the map, claiming more than 2,200 lives in what for the past 136 years has become known in stark terms as the “Johnstown Flood.”
In the spring of 2020, while the world was dealing with the deadly consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan burst onto the national news scene when the decrepit Edenville and Sanford dams near Midland failed, sending a torrent of water raging across the mid-Michigan community to the tune of more than $200 million in damages.
Now, for residents of a small town in Washtenaw County, the future of their city-owned dam is at stake, sparking a debate that is framed with cost, environmental, and historical considerations in mind.
The dam is in Saline, and sits on the northside of U.S. 12, the east-west byway that cuts across Michigan and at various times has been known as the “Chicago Road,” linking Detroit with the Windy City. Founded as a village in 1832, Saline is now a city of some 9,000 residents that is named for its natural salt springs. Located 10 miles south of Ann Arbor, Saline is known for its high-quality school system and diverse industrial base that has strong historical ties to Ford Motor Co. and its legendary founder.
In 1966, Ford Motor Co. opened a massive plant on the east side of Saline, a facility that at one point employed more than 3,200 workers and was reportedly the automaker’s largest plastics manufacturing site in the world.
But Saline’s ties to the giant auto manufacturer actually began during the Great Depression in 1936 when Henry Ford purchased a scenic parcel on the western edge of the town that formerly was the site of a gristmill. The mill was powered by a nearby dam on the Saline River, a 46-mile tributary of the River Raisin. From Saline, the waterway heads south to Milan and through Monroe County before emptying into Lake Erie.
Ford eventually refurbished the Saline site, turning it into a soybean processing plant that became part of his Village Industries that were scattered across small factories located in rural areas of Michigan. Ford’s concept for the Village Industries was to create job opportunities for rural residents, and to decentralize the automaker’s operation by “creating places where technology, manufacturing, and agriculture could co-exist” for the betterment of the company and society.
The Saline site, which encompasses 10 acres, has been owned in recent years by Wendy Weller, who has worn many hats over the course of her entrepreneurial career, most notably as the brains behind Wellers Carriage House, a wedding venue that hosts upwards of 100 marital celebrations a year.
Weller’s late parents, Mickey and Carl, bought the property in 1968, just months before the Saline Dam was heavily damaged following a summer storm.
The wedding site is situated downstream from the dam, which over the past year the city of Saline has been weighing whether to rehabilitate or remove the aging structure.
Originally built in the late 1800s, the dam was rebuilt in the early 1970s after it was virtually wiped out by the 1968 flood.
Wendy Weller, not surprisingly, is spearheading efforts to restore the dam, asserting that repairing the structure would “help maintain the historical and cultural value of the area” at a “far more economical cost” when compared with the expense of removal.
Weller made her feelings known in a March 4 letter to Saline City Council, a seven-member elected panel headed by Mayor Brian Marl, who has served as mayor since 2013.
She has been supported in her “Save the Dam” efforts by scores of other Saline residents, including Don Shelton, a former Saline mayor who is a retired judge of the Washtenaw County Trial Court, and James Peters, a longtime Saline resident and retired engineer who formerly served on City Council.
The group also organized a petition drive to put the dam’s future on the city ballot, attracting more than 400 signatures in support of the proposed referendum.
“We are emphasizing that the dam and surrounding area have been protected as a 13-acre historic site on the National Register of Historic Places since 1996, under the designation ‘Schuyler Mill-Ford Soybean Plant Complex,’” Weller wrote in the letter.
“If the City is eventually allowed to remove the dam, it would require decisions regarding the inlet at the front of the millpond,” she added. “This inlet feeds water under Michigan Avenue (U.S. 12) and Wellers building into the Henry Ford tailrace (also part of the historic property) and is part of the water rights of Wellers. Shutting down this inlet would significantly change this and require the City to make a restoration of Wellers property, including relocation or addition of water for irrigation and possibly filling in the tailrace, making it a safe and suitable site. . . In conclusion, we stress that the proposed Saline dam removal would uniquely impact Wellers property, business, and water rights.”
To bolster her position even further, Weller enlisted the late Henry Ford as an ally.
“This Henry Ford Village Industry was intended, in a very real sense, to maintain the bucolic settings and lifestyles Ford cherished from his boyhood,” Weller wrote. “This vision, increasingly fading, holds valuable lessons that remain relevant and significant in today’s world. Removing the dam would strip away a crucial element of the site’s historic value.”
Opponents of removing the dam also have expressed concern about the considerable cost of converting the millpond into an expanded grass parkland and the time it would take to complete such a project.
City officials, in response, have said that no decision on the fate of the dam has been reached, a fact that was stressed at a March 17 meeting of Saline City Council.
The meeting, which drew a packed crowd to City Hall, centered on the findings of a “Saline River Dam Removal Feasibility Study” that was prepared by the Spicer Group for the City of Saline.
In the opening pages of the 54-page study, the Spicer Group wrote: “The City of Saline is taking a proactive approach to determining whether it is in its best interest to keep or remove the Saline River Dam. In its current state, the dam does not appear to be an imminent risk for failure. However, there are signs of deterioration that, if left unaddressed, will progress to the point that the City will have to act urgently and reactively, with less opportunity to deliberate on what is best for the City overall.
“This study is not intended to recommend whether or not the Saline River Dam should be removed,” the Spicer Group noted. “The primary aim of this study is to provide the City with accurate information regarding what removal of the Saline River Dam would entail.”
In a post on the City of Saline website, a series of “Frequently Asked Questions” about the matter said that the dam is “a piece of aging infrastructure that needs rehabilitation” to keep it “safe and operational. Removal of the dam is an alternative to making a significant investment in an aging structure. Removal also eliminates ongoing operation and maintenance costs and the risk associated with ownership of the dam.”
In response to a question of whether the removal of the dam will increase flooding downstream, city officials said: “The Saline River Dam was not designed or constructed to provide flood control; its purpose was to provide water to power a mill. Although many dams are used for flood control, due to the size of the impoundment (Mill Pond) compared to the size and nature of its watershed, the Saline River Dam does very little to control flooding.”
As to whether removing the dam would destroy natural habitat, Saline officials noted that the Mill Pond is “not a natural feature,” but is a “man-made impoundment maintained” by the dam.
“Although every dam comes with its own unique environmental conditions, dam removals are generally a positive change for the environment,” according to City officials. “Some of the positives are restoration of free passage for fish and other aquatic animals, reduced degradation of the water quality caused by the impoundment, and restoration of natural movement of sediment, organic debris, etc.”
Short term repairs to the dam, which would have an estimated lifespan of up to 10 years, are estimated to cost upward of $1.5 million.
The study presented three alternatives for removing the dam, ranging in cost from $4 million to $6 million. One of the options, projected to cost between $4.5 million to $5 million, would have “negative historical impacts” and related “direct impacts to the Wellers Weddings business operations,” according to the study.
Among the benefits to removing the dam, the study indicated, are risk reduction, reduced long-term costs, and ecological improvements. Additional benefits, officials indicated, would include “pedestrian connectivity” between the two city parks near the dam, along with “improved navigability for canoeing/kayaking.”
“Although short term costs of removal are significantly higher than simply repairing the dam, it is more economical in the long-term to remove the dam,” according to the study.
Replacing the dam, according to the Spicer Group, could cost between $7 million and $8 million with the municipality also incurring approximately $16,000 a year in maintenance and operation expenses.
“This alternative accomplishes risk reduction to the greatest degree possible while still keeping a dam in place to impound Mill Pond,” the study indicated.
On the other hand, the study noted that replacing the dam is “the most expensive option available and does not completely eliminate risk. Further, although the very existence of a dam in this historic location may hold some value, the value is significantly diminished when compared to maintaining the historic structure as it was constructed by Henry Ford.”
The City Council is expected to consider the matter again at its Oct. 6 meeting, and invites area residents to provide feedback by e-mail at dam@cityofsaline.org.
How ever the situation is resolved in Saline, residents might take comfort in knowing that a number of other communities across the state are grappling with how best to deal with their aging dam structures.
In alphabetical order, such communities as Allegan, Battle Creek, Boyne Falls, Clare, Clarkston, Dundee, Flat Rock, Traverse City, and Ypsilanti are among those with dam problems that are in the midst of being addressed in some fashion — repaired, removed, or just studied.
Legal News
The United States has a long and conflicted history with dams, so much so that the mere mention of the word can arouse a range of emotions that runs from the inherently profane, to the dynamic, to the romantic.
Of course, there was nothing romantic about the failure of the South Fork Dam in the hills of Pennsylvania, an 1889 tragedy that nearly wiped the city of Johnstown from the map, claiming more than 2,200 lives in what for the past 136 years has become known in stark terms as the “Johnstown Flood.”
In the spring of 2020, while the world was dealing with the deadly consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan burst onto the national news scene when the decrepit Edenville and Sanford dams near Midland failed, sending a torrent of water raging across the mid-Michigan community to the tune of more than $200 million in damages.
Now, for residents of a small town in Washtenaw County, the future of their city-owned dam is at stake, sparking a debate that is framed with cost, environmental, and historical considerations in mind.
The dam is in Saline, and sits on the northside of U.S. 12, the east-west byway that cuts across Michigan and at various times has been known as the “Chicago Road,” linking Detroit with the Windy City. Founded as a village in 1832, Saline is now a city of some 9,000 residents that is named for its natural salt springs. Located 10 miles south of Ann Arbor, Saline is known for its high-quality school system and diverse industrial base that has strong historical ties to Ford Motor Co. and its legendary founder.
In 1966, Ford Motor Co. opened a massive plant on the east side of Saline, a facility that at one point employed more than 3,200 workers and was reportedly the automaker’s largest plastics manufacturing site in the world.
But Saline’s ties to the giant auto manufacturer actually began during the Great Depression in 1936 when Henry Ford purchased a scenic parcel on the western edge of the town that formerly was the site of a gristmill. The mill was powered by a nearby dam on the Saline River, a 46-mile tributary of the River Raisin. From Saline, the waterway heads south to Milan and through Monroe County before emptying into Lake Erie.
Ford eventually refurbished the Saline site, turning it into a soybean processing plant that became part of his Village Industries that were scattered across small factories located in rural areas of Michigan. Ford’s concept for the Village Industries was to create job opportunities for rural residents, and to decentralize the automaker’s operation by “creating places where technology, manufacturing, and agriculture could co-exist” for the betterment of the company and society.
The Saline site, which encompasses 10 acres, has been owned in recent years by Wendy Weller, who has worn many hats over the course of her entrepreneurial career, most notably as the brains behind Wellers Carriage House, a wedding venue that hosts upwards of 100 marital celebrations a year.
Weller’s late parents, Mickey and Carl, bought the property in 1968, just months before the Saline Dam was heavily damaged following a summer storm.
The wedding site is situated downstream from the dam, which over the past year the city of Saline has been weighing whether to rehabilitate or remove the aging structure.
Originally built in the late 1800s, the dam was rebuilt in the early 1970s after it was virtually wiped out by the 1968 flood.
Wendy Weller, not surprisingly, is spearheading efforts to restore the dam, asserting that repairing the structure would “help maintain the historical and cultural value of the area” at a “far more economical cost” when compared with the expense of removal.
Weller made her feelings known in a March 4 letter to Saline City Council, a seven-member elected panel headed by Mayor Brian Marl, who has served as mayor since 2013.
She has been supported in her “Save the Dam” efforts by scores of other Saline residents, including Don Shelton, a former Saline mayor who is a retired judge of the Washtenaw County Trial Court, and James Peters, a longtime Saline resident and retired engineer who formerly served on City Council.
The group also organized a petition drive to put the dam’s future on the city ballot, attracting more than 400 signatures in support of the proposed referendum.
“We are emphasizing that the dam and surrounding area have been protected as a 13-acre historic site on the National Register of Historic Places since 1996, under the designation ‘Schuyler Mill-Ford Soybean Plant Complex,’” Weller wrote in the letter.
“If the City is eventually allowed to remove the dam, it would require decisions regarding the inlet at the front of the millpond,” she added. “This inlet feeds water under Michigan Avenue (U.S. 12) and Wellers building into the Henry Ford tailrace (also part of the historic property) and is part of the water rights of Wellers. Shutting down this inlet would significantly change this and require the City to make a restoration of Wellers property, including relocation or addition of water for irrigation and possibly filling in the tailrace, making it a safe and suitable site. . . In conclusion, we stress that the proposed Saline dam removal would uniquely impact Wellers property, business, and water rights.”
To bolster her position even further, Weller enlisted the late Henry Ford as an ally.
“This Henry Ford Village Industry was intended, in a very real sense, to maintain the bucolic settings and lifestyles Ford cherished from his boyhood,” Weller wrote. “This vision, increasingly fading, holds valuable lessons that remain relevant and significant in today’s world. Removing the dam would strip away a crucial element of the site’s historic value.”
Opponents of removing the dam also have expressed concern about the considerable cost of converting the millpond into an expanded grass parkland and the time it would take to complete such a project.
City officials, in response, have said that no decision on the fate of the dam has been reached, a fact that was stressed at a March 17 meeting of Saline City Council.
The meeting, which drew a packed crowd to City Hall, centered on the findings of a “Saline River Dam Removal Feasibility Study” that was prepared by the Spicer Group for the City of Saline.
In the opening pages of the 54-page study, the Spicer Group wrote: “The City of Saline is taking a proactive approach to determining whether it is in its best interest to keep or remove the Saline River Dam. In its current state, the dam does not appear to be an imminent risk for failure. However, there are signs of deterioration that, if left unaddressed, will progress to the point that the City will have to act urgently and reactively, with less opportunity to deliberate on what is best for the City overall.
“This study is not intended to recommend whether or not the Saline River Dam should be removed,” the Spicer Group noted. “The primary aim of this study is to provide the City with accurate information regarding what removal of the Saline River Dam would entail.”
In a post on the City of Saline website, a series of “Frequently Asked Questions” about the matter said that the dam is “a piece of aging infrastructure that needs rehabilitation” to keep it “safe and operational. Removal of the dam is an alternative to making a significant investment in an aging structure. Removal also eliminates ongoing operation and maintenance costs and the risk associated with ownership of the dam.”
In response to a question of whether the removal of the dam will increase flooding downstream, city officials said: “The Saline River Dam was not designed or constructed to provide flood control; its purpose was to provide water to power a mill. Although many dams are used for flood control, due to the size of the impoundment (Mill Pond) compared to the size and nature of its watershed, the Saline River Dam does very little to control flooding.”
As to whether removing the dam would destroy natural habitat, Saline officials noted that the Mill Pond is “not a natural feature,” but is a “man-made impoundment maintained” by the dam.
“Although every dam comes with its own unique environmental conditions, dam removals are generally a positive change for the environment,” according to City officials. “Some of the positives are restoration of free passage for fish and other aquatic animals, reduced degradation of the water quality caused by the impoundment, and restoration of natural movement of sediment, organic debris, etc.”
Short term repairs to the dam, which would have an estimated lifespan of up to 10 years, are estimated to cost upward of $1.5 million.
The study presented three alternatives for removing the dam, ranging in cost from $4 million to $6 million. One of the options, projected to cost between $4.5 million to $5 million, would have “negative historical impacts” and related “direct impacts to the Wellers Weddings business operations,” according to the study.
Among the benefits to removing the dam, the study indicated, are risk reduction, reduced long-term costs, and ecological improvements. Additional benefits, officials indicated, would include “pedestrian connectivity” between the two city parks near the dam, along with “improved navigability for canoeing/kayaking.”
“Although short term costs of removal are significantly higher than simply repairing the dam, it is more economical in the long-term to remove the dam,” according to the study.
Replacing the dam, according to the Spicer Group, could cost between $7 million and $8 million with the municipality also incurring approximately $16,000 a year in maintenance and operation expenses.
“This alternative accomplishes risk reduction to the greatest degree possible while still keeping a dam in place to impound Mill Pond,” the study indicated.
On the other hand, the study noted that replacing the dam is “the most expensive option available and does not completely eliminate risk. Further, although the very existence of a dam in this historic location may hold some value, the value is significantly diminished when compared to maintaining the historic structure as it was constructed by Henry Ford.”
The City Council is expected to consider the matter again at its Oct. 6 meeting, and invites area residents to provide feedback by e-mail at dam@cityofsaline.org.
How ever the situation is resolved in Saline, residents might take comfort in knowing that a number of other communities across the state are grappling with how best to deal with their aging dam structures.
In alphabetical order, such communities as Allegan, Battle Creek, Boyne Falls, Clare, Clarkston, Dundee, Flat Rock, Traverse City, and Ypsilanti are among those with dam problems that are in the midst of being addressed in some fashion — repaired, removed, or just studied.
Holding
a keepsake photo from one of the many weddings she has hosted over the
past four decades, Wendy Weller is spearheading opposition to removal of
the Saline River Dam.
––––––––––––––––––––
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