Project could cost $3 million or more

Dear Editor,

This Friday, November 7, there will be a public hearing on an expensive North Branch of Mill Creek Drain project. It will begin at 10:00 a.m. at the Imlay City Eagles Hall in Imlay City. At the hearing, the Intercounty Drainage Board will decide whether a petition it has received from Goodland Township for the project on that drain is practical, or in the old-fashioned language of the Michigan Drain Code, “practicable.”

The project would be paid for by drain assessments to the landowners and townships in the drainage district in Lapeer and St. Clair Counties. The project could cost $3 million or more.

Farmers, mostly in Lapeer County, have complained that the North Branch is not draining floodwaters fast enough. A study by Spicer Engineering of Saginaw determined that the main problems on the North Branch are five farm crossing culverts that were installed in the past, which are too small and hold back some of the flow of floodwaters. The engineers said these crossings would cost about $500,000 each to replace with properly-sized concrete box culverts because the drain has a very large channel.

The only way the project may not be practical is if all the landowners in the drainage district don’t want to pay assessments for a project that will only benefit a few large landowners. Otherwise, to the Drain Commissioners and their engineers, a project is almost always practical because they don’t have to pay for it. Indeed, the engineers make a lot of money on it, and the bigger the project, the more money they make.

Lynn Township is the only township in St. Clair County that would be assessed. However, residents in Brockway Township and Yale need to be concerned that efforts are made in the project design to prevent more flooding downstream on Mill Creek because of increased flows from the North Branch.

If the project is found “practicable,” an engineering firm will be hired to design the project, and a second public “Hearing of Necessity” will be required before the project can move forward. For more information, you can contact the St. Clair County Drain Commissioner’s office at (810) 364-5369 or the Lapeer County Drain Commissioner’s office at (810) 667-0371.

— Fred Fuller
Yale