Title
Resolution to Approve Contract with Bodman, LLP, for Legal Services Relative to MDEQ Dam Safety Order Regarding Argo Dam ($38,000.00)
Memo
On August 6, 2009, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) issued an Order regarding Argo Dam that requires the City to take certain action by certain dates, including the dewatering of the head race behind the embankment, and also requiring the City to make a decision whether to keep or demolish the dam in order to comply with deadlines in the Order either to make repairs to the toe drains or to demolish the dam. The MDEQ did not observe or document any change in the embankment conditions or any other documented condition or data that necessitated the Order. Although staff has met with MDEQ staff to seek some clarifications and to determine whether the dewatering of the head race would satisfy safety concerns, thereby eliminating the need to comply with the deadlines to keep and repair or to demolish the dam, MDEQ has not revised the Order. The Order also does not address the impact of dewatering or removal on the purple turtlehead that grows on a portion of the embankment Whether the City decides to keep Argo Dam or remove Argo Dam, the Order imposes deadlines on the City that are not required by law or regulation and that are not based on the actual conditions at Argo Dam.
The procedure for challenging the MDEQ Order required the City to file a contested case within 60 days of the date of the Order, which was October 5, 2009. The contested case procedure include an opportunity for negotiations with the MDEQ and, if the negotiations do not resolved the issues, provide for a hearing before an administrative law judge which will result in a decision by the MDEQ. Although a decision in the near future by the City to keep or remove Argo Dam may simplify some of the issues and proceedings, such decision will not eliminate all of the issues or the need to go forward with the contested case.
The City...
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