Years of warnings about the Cheboygan Lock and Dam came before floodwaters pushed the Cheboygan Mi structure to the brink of collapse, and local, state and federal officials were all aware of the danger. The publicly owned dam depends in part on a nonfunctional hydro plant to move floodwaters downstream, leaving emergency repairs now being bankrolled with taxpayer money.
That plant, now owned by Hom Paper XI, LLC, a business controlled by former NFL linebacker Thomas Homco, had been a known problem long before this week’s emergency response. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission records show the agency sent warning letters for years to a shifting cast of owners while also granting multiple extensions, and officials and Bridge Michigan reported Thursday that the dam was being pushed toward failure as crews scrambled to keep it in place.
The weight of the warning was there as far back as 2019, when regulars were already pointing to cracked concrete and damaged retaining walls and gates that help the dam manage flooding. By 2021, FERC was telling the plant’s then owners that multiple items were overdue and completion dates were rapidly approaching. The plant was then cited 16 times in 10 months for safety violations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration before a fire in September 2023 shut it down altogether, prompting more repair orders and still more extensions from FERC.
That long paper trail matters because the dam’s weak point was never a secret. State officials said they knew about the issues but had no role in enforcement, while Cheboygan County Sheriff Todd Ross said state and local officials did what they could. Ross said, “We didn’t wait ‘til the last minute. It’s privately owned. There’s only so much we can do.”
Richard Sangster, who said he was very concerned that this was not handled properly, put the risk in starker terms. “Safety concerns have been raised many times,” he said, adding that “you wouldn’t even be able to measure how detrimental” a dam failure would be. Estimated repair needs from a few years ago put the plant’s costs at at least $1 million, and Bridge Michigan was asking readers in the spring to help reach a $60,000 goal by April 29 as it said it was watching out for Michigan.
What happened in Cheboygan Mi was not a surprise collapse but a failure that had been building for years while ownership changed, deadlines slipped and enforcement lagged. The immediate question now is not whether the danger was known, but whether the repairs will come fast enough to keep the dam from giving way.
