Michigan Court of Claims Dismisses Edenville Dam Lawsuit. The Record Tells a Different Story.

What Happened on May 19, 2020

The Edenville Dam was a 96-year-old earthen embankment built in 1924 across the Tittabawassee and Tobacco Rivers in Midland and Gladwin Counties. On the evening of May 19, 2020, after days of heavy rainfall, the east embankment gave way. (Wikipedia, Edenville Dam) The wall of water that followed overwhelmed the Sanford Dam downstream. Roughly 11,000 residents were evacuated. More than 2,500 structures were damaged. Wixom Lake — the reservoir the dam had held — drained. It does not exist today. (ClickOnDetroit, Nov. 2025)

The failure was not a surprise to people who had been paying attention. FERC’s Independent Forensic Team, which completed its investigation in May 2022, concluded the disaster was “foreseeable and preventable.” (FERC IFT Final Report, May 4, 2022) It traced the mechanism to loose sands placed in the embankment during 1920s construction that underwent static liquefaction when water levels rose — a known vulnerability, in a dam that regulators had been warning about for over two decades.

The Regulatory History the State Would Prefer You Skip

The state’s position is that Boyce Hydro Power — the private operator owned and controlled by Lee Mueller — is responsible for the failure, and the evidence supports that Boyce Hydro was negligent. Mueller was hit with a $120 million federal judgment in 2023 for violating Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act. (Michigan AG Press Release, April 23, 2026) He hid information from regulators, ran a disinformation campaign blaming the state for his own dam’s instability, and let a structure deteriorate for decades. That is all documented.

But the regulatory history of the Edenville Dam does not let the state step back cleanly. Here is what the record shows:

What the Court Said

Court of Claims Judge James Robert Redford dismissed the case on April 23, 2026. His ruling rested on several legal and factual findings.

The core holding: at all times relevant to the case, no state entity exercised ownership or operational control of the Edenville Dam. (Michigan Advance, April 24, 2026) Under Michigan law, inverse condemnation — the legal theory plaintiffs used — requires a showing that government action or inaction damaged private property. Redford found that the threshold was not met.

On the water level question, Redford found that the April 2020 authorization to raise Wixom Lake did not constitute state control of the dam because the lake level had been set by a circuit court order, not by EGLE’s independent decision. (Detroit Free Press / AOL, April 2026)

On the question of whether lower water levels would have prevented the failure: Redford cited the FERC Independent Forensic Team’s finding that operating the dam at run-of-river levels “might have delayed the failure but was unlikely to have prevented it,” given the unprecedented rainfall — up to 8 inches in under 48 hours — that triggered the breach. (Detroit Free Press / AOL, April 2026)

Redford also acknowledged the weight of what the ruling means for the people it affects: “The court acknowledges that those impacted by the dam failure still face an ‘immensely difficult and heavy burden.'” (Michigan Advance, April 24, 2026) That is an unusual thing for a judge to put in a dismissal order. It does not change the outcome. It does suggest he understood what the outcome means.

The State’s Position, and Why It Deserves Scrutiny

Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office framed the ruling as a complete vindication. “The evidence has always shown the State was not responsible,” her press release said. “We have taken decisive action against those who were.” (Michigan AG Press Release, April 23, 2026)

That framing skips some things worth noting.

EGLE took over regulatory authority for the Edenville Dam in September 2018. In the 18 months between that handoff and the dam’s failure, EGLE’s own engineers documented in writing that the structure could not safely operate, that the embankment was at risk of erosion-driven failure, and that spillway capacity did not meet state standards. That documentation exists. It was produced in discovery. It was in unsealed court filings. (ClickOnDetroit, June 2025)

EGLE’s defense — partly borne out in the court’s findings — is that it inherited a mess from FERC, lacked access to decades of protected records until the license was revoked, and was actively working with the Four Lakes Task Force to facilitate a purchase and upgrade of the dam. That is also documented. The Four Lakes Task Force purchase was close to finalized when the dam failed. (Wikipedia; EGLE FAQ, June 2020)

Both things can be true at once. EGLE was working toward a solution. EGLE also authorized raising water levels in April 2020, six weeks before the failure, after its own engineers had flagged the embankment as a stability risk. The court found that decision was legally defensible. The court did not find that decision was wise.

What Happens Next

The case is not over. At least one law firm, Ven Johnson Law, has announced it will appeal the dismissal to the Michigan Supreme Court. (WCMU, April 24, 2026) Johnson told WCMU the ruling sets a dangerous precedent: “Simply because a government entity can shave some bucks off their budget by not doing something that they should, doesn’t mean they should be allowed to do it.” He described the notion that Michigan residents have no recourse against the state government when it fails in its regulatory duties as “offensive.”

Cohen Milstein, another firm in the litigation, previously noted that the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in September 2023 that the state is not immune from prosecution for the failures — a ruling that allowed the case to proceed at all. (Cohen Milstein case page) That immunity question is likely to resurface on appeal.

With more than half of Michigan’s dams privately owned, Johnson’s argument about precedent is not abstract. If EGLE can take regulatory authority over a structure, document in writing that it cannot safely operate, and still face no liability when it fails, the question of what state dam regulation is actually for deserves an answer beyond “it wasn’t our dam.”

The rebuild of Edenville Dam is underway. The Four Lakes Task Force secured final EGLE permits in March 2025. The projected completion is 2027, with Wixom Lake refill targeted for 2028. The state committed $200 million toward the $400 million total rebuild cost. (Detroit Free Press / AOL, April 2026) The money is real. The question of accountability for what happened before May 19, 2020, is still being litigated.

Eleven thousand people were evacuated. More than 2,500 structures were damaged. Wixom Lake is gone. A regulatory agency with its own engineers raising alarms in writing has been told by a court it is not responsible. The dam owner — who is responsible — has been hit with a $120 million judgment and declared bankruptcy. The people who lost their homes and property are left with a $120 million judgment against someone who has nothing, and a dismissal from the state that regulated the dam they watched fail.

That is the record. Watch the appeal.