Wixom Lake was a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

from 1925 to 2020. It was named after Frank Wixom, who was instrumental in building the

Edenville Dam Edenville Dam was an earthen embankment dam at the confluence of the Tittabawassee River and the Tobacco River in Mid Michigan, United States, forming Wixom Lake. The dam was about north of Edenville, mostly in the southeast corner of Toba ...

. Unusual for its size, Wixom Lake boasts a lighthouse on Musselman Island. From 2019-2020, an agreement to buy the dam and reservoir by the Four Lakes Task Force, a "county-delegated authority" under the State of Michigan, from Boyce Hydro L.L.C. was in place, However, in May of 2020, the lake was destroyed when the earthen dam used to impound it overtopped and then collapsed. From 2018 to 2020, the impoundment was regulated by the

Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), formerly Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (Michigan DEQ, MDEQ, or simply DEQ), is a principal department of the U.S. state of Michigan for environmental issues. Th ...

(EGLE).

Past features of Wixom Lake

The lake typically had a surface area of , a shoreline of more than , a maximum capacity of , a normal capacity of , and a maximum depth of . Wixom Lake was the third in a series of four reservoirs along the

Tittabawassee River The Tittabawassee River flows in a generally southeasterly direction through the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The river begins at Secord Lake in Clement Township, at the confluence of the East Branch and the Middle Branch. From ...

, each controlled to a lower elevation during the winter

flood control Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...

season and a higher elevation during the summer recreation season. In April 2020, Michigan's EGLE sued the dam's operator, alleging it had lowered Wixom Lake's water level without permission in 2018 and 2019, killing thousands of

freshwater mussel Freshwater bivalves are one kind of freshwater mollusc, along with freshwater snails. They are bivalves that live in fresh water as opposed to salt water, which is the main habitat type for bivalves. The majority of species of bivalve molluscs ...

Incidents

2018–2019 lake draining and lawsuits

The water level in the lake was lowered by its operator in 2018 and 2019. It said it had requested permission from Michigan's EGLE, which failed to issue it. Despite the lack of a permit, it said it lowered the water "due to concern for the safety of its operators and the downstream community", and it proceeded to sue EGLE in federal court on April 29, 2020. The following day, EGLE countersued the dam's operator, alleging it had lowered Wixom Lake's water level without permission, killing thousands of freshwater mussels.

2020 dam failure and destruction

In May 2020, during severe Tittabawasee River floods, a large earthen section of the Edenville Dam collapsed, requiring evacuations downstream, completely emptying the lake, and rerouting the river to a new course immediately downstream. Governor

Gretchen Whitmer Gretchen Esther Whitmer (born August 23, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 49th governor of Michigan since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2001 to 2006 a ...

subsequently declared a state of emergency for Midland County. Requests to also aid Gladwin County residents is under review by governors staff.

References

Bodies of water of Gladwin County, Michigan Bodies of water of Midland County, Michigan Dam failures in the United States {{MidlandCountyMI-geo-stub