TABLE OF CONTENTS
•
What does the Antrim County Drain Commissioner do?
• What’s it like to be
Drain Commissioner?
• Tour the Bellaire Dam.
• Tour the Elk Rapids Hydro Dam.
• Why doesn’t the Antrim
County Drain Commissioner handle drainage issues like drain commissioners
downstate do?
• How to Contact the Drain Commissioner.
• Biographical Information on Mark Stone
What
does the Antrim County Drain Commissioner do?
In Antrim County, the Drain Commissioner supervises and
operates the two dams owned by the County: the Elk Rapids Hydroelectric
Dam and the Bellaire Dam. Even though keeping the dams is 95% of the workload
for the Antrim County Drain Commissioner, it is not a statutory responsibility
of the job.
The County is obligated by court order to maintain the water levels on
two lakes: Intermediate Lake and Elk Lake. Many years ago, the County
Board of Commissioners decided to assign the task of maintaining those
levels, and the dams, to the County Drain Commissioner. However, the Drain
Commissioner performs these tasks at the pleasure of the County Board,
and the job could be revoked at any time the County Commissioners see
fit. The Drain Commissioner’s department is overseen by the Public
Works Committee of the County Board of Commissioners.
In order to supervise and operate the dams, the Drain Commissioner maintains
a small budget which is part of the County’s General Fund. The Drain
Commissioner has no employees, but gets secretarial support from the County
Planner’s office and lawn maintenance support from the County Building
Maintenance Dept. Each year, the Drain Commissioner provides an Annual
Report to the County Board and meets with the Public Works Committee as
necessary. He also maintains a small office on the second floor of the
County Building. The position is part time only and most of the work is
performed at the dams.
The Drain Commissioner operates the Bellaire Dam himself. (The Bellaire
Dam is located in Richardi Park, near the swimming beach and picnic area.)
The dam consists of an earthen berm with 5 electrically powered gates
set into a concrete structure. The gates must be operated on site to increase
and decrease the flow of water from Intermediate Lake in order to maintain
the court ordered lake level. The level is measured at a gauge located
near Central Lake.
The Elk Rapids Hydroelectric is operated under contract by the Traverse
City Light and Power with some involvement of the Village of Elk Rapids.
This dam maintains the court ordered level for Elk Lake. The Drain Commissioner
acts as supervisor of the contract and liaison with TCLP. Since the facility
is County property, the Drain Commissioner is also responsible for periodic
maintenance and inspection of the Elk Rapids Dam building and the equipment.
Both dams require routine safety inspections by the Department of Environmental
Quality, and in the case of the Hydro Dam, the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission. The inspection process necessitates the hiring of engineers
and often the bidding of contracts for larger maintenance projects, which
is handled by the Drain Commissioner and authorized by the County Board.
In addition, the Drain Commissioner is the principal responder to emergencies
at the dams and responsible for coordinating other agencies. In the past
six years, two equipment emergencies have occurred at the dams.
What’s
it like to be Drain Commissioner?
People who don’t live on the lakes in Antrim County might be surprised
at how passionate some of our residents are about the lake levels. Most
of my interaction with the public is fielding questions and complaints
about that subject. About half the people that complain feel the level
is too high, and the other half feel the level is too low. In most cases,
there is little I can do but explain the process of maintaining the lake
levels.
For instance, the levels of only two lakes are directly controlled by
the dams and yet I field calls from residents on many of the lakes in
the County where the dams have little or no effect. Even though the court
has established legal levels on Elk Lake and Intermediate Lake, nature
doesn’t always cooperate with the court orders. The volume of water
we can move through the dam after a heavy rain is not sufficient to drop
the surface to the legal level immediately—it may even take weeks—and
opening the dams too quickly can also have consequences. Operating the
dams and maintaining the levels is a balancing act of the first order.
Since taking office seven years ago, both dams have undergone two rounds
of careful inspections and a considerable amount of repair and refurbishment.
You may have noticed a couple of years ago, when we replaced the old cyclone
fencing around the Bellaire Dam compound and removed the unsightly and
dangerous barbed wire. At the same time, entire areas of the concrete
abutments were resurfaced to treat damage from the constant flow of water.
(All this work was paid for with a FEMA grant thanks to the help of the
Antrim Conservation District—no Antrim tax dollars were necessary.)
Of course, like all mechanical parts, the motors, gears and fittings on
the dams are in need of routine maintenance, and these parts are checked
on a regular basis.
Technological improvements have improved our ability to reduce the fluctuation
of the lake level in Intermediate Lake. Through the funding of another
grant, the U.S. Geological Survey installed an electronic lake level gauge
which allows the Drain Commissioner to check the level by way of the internet
from any location. It also records the level over time, which offers the
ability to assess the speed with which the water level rises and falls
in relation to the changing of the gates.
Prior to 1997, no records of lake levels were ever compiled. The electronic
gauge on Intermediate Lake now automatically records the level each 15
minutes and we also record each change in the position of gates on the
dam.
The Elk Rapids Hydro Dam presents the greatest administrative challenge.
As a power generating facility, the dam falls under the regulations of
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). It’s hard to explain
how complicated the FERC paperwork, inspections, etc., associated with
owning a hydro dam can be, and to complicate matters, we also come under
the oversight of the Department of Environmental Quality.
The Hydro Dam is operated under a complicated contractual agreement with
Traverse City Light and Power (TCLP). The Hydro Dam is monitored by the
TCLP control room twenty four hours a day and TCLP performs most of the
routine maintenance on the generating equipment as well. However, Antrim
County maintains the building and impoundments and occasionally brings
in outside contractors to perform larger maintenance tasks on the generating
equipment. The Village of Elk Rapids and Consumers Energy are also contractually
involved in maintaining the dam.
It took several years to fully understand all the administrative and equipment
operation of the Hydro Dam and even today, we’re still learning
more as we go. Just as at the Bellaire Dam, the Hydro Dam requires regular
maintenance work. Most recently, we installed new booms at the intake
gates to resist the formation of ice which could interfere the water flow.
(The lowest initial bid was over $60,000 for the work, but we were able
to accomplish it with a local contractor for less than $20,000. Please
excuse the self promotion, but this is an election year.)
Admittedly, I love this job. From an early age and into college I worked
in our family business, a marina at the mouth of the Detroit River. It
was a wonderful education for learning how to work in and around water,
including marine construction, hydrology, and all the related trades.
We also lived on the river, where I spent virtually all my free time as
a youth, exploring, fishing and duck hunting. So, it takes little effort
to drive down to the dam at any hour of the day or night and adjust the
gates—just listening to the water fall through the sluice way is
a reward in itself.
In some counties, the drain commissioner position has become very political.
The drain commissioner position can become a means to further a political
agenda to the left or the right, anti-development or pro-development.
It would be unfortunate for this to become the case in Antrim County.
Since the Antrim County Drain Commissioner is the person entrusted to
keep the dams and the lake levels, it’s necessary that the public
view that person as someone who is willing to place his or her job as
a public servant before any personal political agenda.
Besides, we already have an active and ongoing political debate in Antrim
County, it occurs at the County Board of Commissioners. The Board is the
place to debate the issues of our time—they set the policy, they
set the budget, they instruct the staff. Once the Board sets the policy,
the Drain Commissioner’s job is to expedite the policy in a fair
and efficient manner.
Tour
the Bellaire Dam.
As noted above, the Bellaire Dam is located in Richardi Park, near the
swimming beach and picnic area. The original dam was constructed soon
after the first settlers arrived in the area to power the local sawmill
and back up Intermediate Lake to make it easier to float logs from the
adjacent areas. Richardi, the park’s namesake, was the owner of
the woodenware factory that was located on the site of the park and the
man responsible for first fitting the dam with equipment to generate electricity.
Ironically, at first the power was not used in Bellaire, but a transmission
line carried the electricity to Charlevoix where it was used to provide
some of the first public lighting with electric bulbs (reputedly the first
such use of electricity in Michigan).
The Bellaire Dam continued to generate power well into the last century
and was finally decommissioned some time in the 1950s. The three concrete
chutes with vertical gates on the west side of the dam date to the era
of power generation, during which they served as the overflow gates in
case of floods. The two radial arm gates and their concrete chutes were
installed around 1980 and replaced the structure that housed the water
turbine and generators.
The summertime water
level of Intermediate Lake was established by a circuit court order at
607.15 feet above sea level in 1986. On November 1st of each year, the
order calls for the level to be dropped to 606.54. The following spring,
the lake level is raised to the summertime level on May 15th (or ice break-up,
if it occurs earlier).
The legal lake level has changed several times in recent decades. In 1973,
the court had established the Intermediate Lake level at 607.4 (3 inches
higher than presently) in the summer and 606.94 (six inches higher) in
the winter. In 1980, the County Board of Commissioners petitioned the
court to drop the level due to complaints about erosion and flooding.
In 1984, after the petition of the Upper Chain of Lakes Association supporting
the Commissioners, the court ordered an average year round level of 606.54.
However, problems with summer boat navigation in low water initiated a
counter argument and petition in 1985 by the Northern Waterways Association.
The court responded by setting the higher level of 607.15 during the summer.
In practice, the water level have a fluctuation of several inches with
a significant rain or melt—even if the dam is wide open. Steep hills
in the Intermediate Lake watershed send water into the lakes very quickly
and cause sudden increases in the lake level. If the ground is already
saturated with moisture, the runoff accelerates—as it will with
the quick melt of snow pack during a spring heat wave. The stretch of
distance from Intermediate Lake down the shallow Intermediate River to
the dam and the convergence with the Cedar River delay the movement of
water from the lake—and the effects of changes of gates at the dam.
Just this spring, heavy rainfalls drove the lake level five inches above
normal and it took almost two weeks to drop back—even though all
the dam gates were open since the rains began.
However, most of the time the level is within an inch or so of the ordered
level. One thing is almost always true: the water level is either going
up or going down—it’s rarely remains static for more than
a couple days at a time—but that’s just Michigan weather at
work.
Tour
the Elk Rapids Hydro Dam.
Similar to the Bellaire Dam, the first dam at Elk Rapids was built with
the arrival of the first settlers and also powered the local sawmill.
Sometime in the late 19th century, the dam was electrified to supply the
growing iron foundry and related industries. The Elk Rapids Iron Company
conveyed the dam to the Elk Electric Company in the mid 1920s and it later
came into the ownership of Consumers Power Co. The dam was decommissioned
in the late 1950s and eventually came into the possession of Antrim County.
During the energy crisis of the late 1970s, the County took the opportunity
to recommission the facility as a hydroelectric dam, and the current generating
equipment was installed at that time. Concurrent with the recommissioning,
Antrim County contracted with Traverse City Light and Power to manage
the daily operation of the electricity generation.
The present day dam is located on Dexter Street in Elk Rapids, situated
between the upper (Elk Lake) and lower (Grand Traverse Bay) boat harbors
and is an integral part of the historic downtown and the recreational
waterfront, including the Edward R. Grace Harbor. The downstream side
of the dam is a popular fishing destination that attracts anglers from
all over Michigan.
The brick building visible from the exterior houses the generating equipment.
Built into its foundation are four separate chutes through which the water
flows. Only two contain generating turbines. The water enters a chute
through gates on the upper side and flows into a large rectangular chamber.
A cylindrical turbine housing sits in the middle of the chamber with wicket
gates at the top edge. Water flows through the wicket gates and falls
downward into the housing, pushing the turbine blades as it falls. The
turbine drives a shaft that extends through the upper floor and drives
the electric generator. All the generating equipment is monitored 24 hours
a day from a control room in Traverse City.
The summertime water level of Elk Lake was established by a circuit court
order at 590.8 feet above sea level in 1973. On November 1st of each year,
the order calls for the level to be dropped to 590.2. The following spring,
the lake level is raised to the summertime level on April 15th (or ice
break-up, if it occurs earlier).
For several
reasons, the Elk Lake level is easier to keep constant and less fluctuations
occur than on Intermediate Lake. The Elk Rapids Dam has considerable capacity
and is located close to Elk Lake, so more water can be moved more quickly
in response to rainfall. Also, the Elk River runs into Grand Traverse
Bay through another route and provides an overflow capacity independent
of the dam.
Why doesn’t
the Antrim County Drain Commissioner handle drainage issues like drain
commissioners downstate?
Simply put, the Antrim County Drain Commissioner’s statutory duties
are extremely limited. Antrim County never elected to create legal drainage
districts of the sort widely found in downstate Michigan. Therefore, the
Drain Commissioner has little power other than the duties assigned by
the County Board of Commissioners.
Historically, the drain commissioner was the authority that determined
where and how drainage ways were constructed to drain stormwater runoff
from the land for farmers. In the heavily agricultural (and flat) counties
of southern Michigan, drainage districts were commonly established and
the drain commissioner was one of the most influential of local politicians
with the power to assess taxes and condemn land for public projects. Today,
drain commissioners in many downstate counties continue to be important
political power brokers that now build sewers and other infrastructure
for modern development.
The ground of Antrim County never supported the intense agricultural activity
of downstate and the sandy nature of local soils lend themselves to quick
absorption of water. Therefore, the County never had the need to establish
legal drainage districts to handle runoff. As a result, the Antrim County
Drain Commissioner has no authority over drainage issues that arise in
the County. Drainage issues associated with the roadways are handled by
the Road Commission. Drainage issues related to building activity are
handled by the Antrim Conservation District (which administers the Soil
Erosion Control Program). Drainage issues between Antrim County landowners
have been ruled to be civil matters between the landowners.
One small drainage
district exists in Antrim County. It includes the area around Birch Lake
in Elk Rapids Township and was created to build a small sewer system to
pump into the Village of Elk Rapids’ sewage treatment plant. The
Drain Commissioner’s only involvement with that district is to maintain
the County easement that follows the small creek that drains Birch Lake
to the Grand Traverse Bay. Every few years, the Drain Commissioner organizes
a work party to clear the easement of debris and overgrowth that might
impede the flow.
How
to Contact the Drain Commissioner, Mark Stone:
The Antrim County Drain Commissioner is a part-time position and most
of the work is done outside of normal business hours. To contact me, it's
best to email or call me during normal business hours at my regular job
as publisher of Michigan Maps in Elk Rapids. You may also drop by the
office at 104 Dexter Street, in the historic downtown.
Mark Stone, 231-264-6800 (Feel free to leave a message, if you get the machine.)
Email: damkeeper@antrimcounty.org
Please direct official or legal correspondence to: Antrim County Drain Commissioner, P.O. Box 217, Bellaire, MI 49615 (231) 533-6265
For biographical information on Mark Stone, please click here.