The former owner of a Michigan dam is on the hook for roughly $120 million sought by the state for environmental damage when the structure failed after days of rain in 2020, a judge said.
But it’s not known how the state will ever collect: Lee Mueller has filed for bankruptcy protection in Nevada.
“I don’t have $120 million,” Mueller told The Associated Press, calling the figure an “absurdity.”
Wixom Lake, a reservoir behind the Edenville Dam, disappeared.
The state insists that the Edenville Dam collapsed as a result of poor maintenance and a lack of critical repairs.
“The failures of the Edenville and Sanford dams caused impacts that were devastating but avoidable,” said Phil Roos, director of the state environment agency.
Mueller said he believes the dam failed because of a defect during construction about a century ago.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asked experts to study what happened at the Edenville and Sanford dams. The 2022 report said failure was “foreseeable and preventable” but could not be “attributed to any one individual, group or organization.”
Separately, the state is facing a flood of litigation from affected property owners. They accuse regulators of making decisions that contributed to the disaster, including setting higher water levels in Wixom Lake.
