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Boardman River
Subject: 303 Michigan Wetlands, part 91soil erosion
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen: 50 acres, once prime wetlands for waterfowl, and 3 miles of shoreline that once was a beautiful Fishery is gone.
My name is Bruce Carpenter, I live on what was the beautiful Historical Boardman River's Impoundment south of Traverse City. A permit to drain this Beautiful part of the river has been issued by the MDEQ to the County of Grand Traverse County to lower the level 14 more ft. After a 3' draw down back in March, 100 % of the exposed shoreline is flat sandy or gravel area or flat soft bottom area with abundant vegetation, perfectly suitable for a productive fishery and substance to sustain waterfowl is gone. Currently 80% of the land under water is steep sloped banks not suitable to sustain any fishery. When asked what will happen to the wetlands and river's inhabitants? We were told by representitives of the MDNR and MDEQ, "they will just go away".We are constantly being reminded about a process and the need to stay within it's boundaries although the drawdown is started and commences without conclusions or recommendations from any team in regards to any scope of work involved in the process. It is being done backwards drain it first then do a study. Now ridiculed for asking our court system for a ruling. Ridiculed by County Commissioners and Laughed at by our Administrator for asking our judicial system to give a fair unbiased ruling regarding several issues on the permit in question, and to stop the frenetic unheeded destruction of a ecosystem that has evolved in and around the Historical River Impoundment and beautiful Boardman River Valley. The Majority of Commissioners and the Administrator have engaged in misinforming the public. There have been statements made "the bridge is unsafe", "The dam is going to blow". People these comments are fiction. There is proof the bridge is safe, more than 4000 cars cross it daily.The County Road Commission and they're engineers decided there was no emanate danger or they would have closed it after they're last inspections. Fact a part of dam, the spillway is subject to question, Only because it is being held now to a specification referred to as a 200 yr flood. As engineered reports state, if such a flood event ever presents its self, the Dam up river Brown Bridge Dam and the Dam down river Sabin dam would both fail before the Boardman Dam. Ladies and Gentlemen almost every dam in America would fail under what was coined "a Katrina like event." Also the engineers study states the dam can pass 6 inches of the impoundments water level per hour translating to 12 feet per day, it also says that there would be days to prepare. Why would you destroy acres and acres of wetlands and miles of shoreline for fisheries when it seems all we would have to do is In the event of a Katrina like deluge, commence draining in preparation for it...
The MDEQ's intransigent decision forcing the County to drawdown the water level before collection of data needed to complete a feasibility study is a crime. Creating a real danger to the Environment, Fishery, Waterfowl, Humans. Also over looked are EPA studies revealing toxins trapped in the sediment. There is a study done by a Tenth grade student that states in the first 10 days of the emergency draw down 600 cubic yards of sediment was already displaced and believed by biologists to be contaminating all inhabitants of the river and wetlands as well as Riparian owned overflowed properties before the completion of any studies.
Please could someone explain why we have to rely on a high school students class project to grasp the severity of this situation.
The unheeded destruction of acres of wetlands and loss of miles of reproductive shoreline with no mention or any regards to Part 303 Wetlands Protections Act or part 91 Soil Erosion. Ladies and gentlemen we are early in the draw down and even earlier in the studies, or lack there of. Already we have trapped fish baking in isolated pools unexplained vegetation die offs, we have seagulls apparently dead from eating a population of dead or dying species of the food chain.
Attached are pictures that may summarize our concerns.
Thank you for your time.
Please reply to: Bruce Carpenter 589 Boardman View, Traverse City Michigan 49686 or Whitewater Watch web site.
Pictures are worth a thousand words.
Attention:
Has Everyone seen this?
This is a 75 foot long chunk of the bank that has cracked off and started to sink as witnessed by one of the blog responders, To the right it clearly starts at the railroad embankment dropping 4 1/2 ft and new to the danger it split again and that chunk of earth sank about 2 ft.
The panoramic view shows the tracks thu the small clearing on the right hand side of the picture.
The close up shows the fracture and how the second fracture appeared when the train went by. Read the Blog on
www.theboardman.org
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Send mail to: Whitewater Watch, PO box 161, Williamsburg MI 49690
