Solutions to Midland’s Flood Issue Starting Next Fall

(TNS) – Long-term solutions for Midland’s legacy flooding issue are six years away from being implemented, but work to improve the problem could start as early as next fall according to the Advisory Committee on Infrastructure.

The ACOI, a Midland Business Alliance committee, presented an update to the Midland County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday in the County Services Building . Co-Chair J.W Fisher explained that the committee is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on long-term solutions and with other organizations, including Spicer Group, on short-term solutions.

The hydraulic/hydrology study that the corps of engineers began in 2021 will be completed by the end of this year. This data collection, analysis and watershed modeling will be used in a general investigation study to produce projects that will provide long-term solutions to the problem.

“This is the study that updates the information for today’s world,” Fisher said. “Everybody has been using 1994 flood data, so it’s 30 years old and just not accurate. This will get us updated data on what the rivers and streams do in any given rain.”

The general investigation study has already been authorized by the Water Resources Development Act and is waiting to be appropriated funds in the federal budget, which is expected to be approved next month.

This study will look at long-term solutions such as large-scale retention of water, or marshlands, similar to that of the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge . Fisher said this retention could be up to 15,000 acre-feet — or about 4.89 billion gallons.

The committee is also working with Spicer Group on its Midland Flood Reduction Plan. This plan, as it is now, would use Main Street and the Pere Marquette Rail Trail as levees and would create flood gates and pump stations along Snake and Sturgeon creeks.

The State of Michigan allocated $40 million to the City of Midland this year for flood reduction solutions such as this plan. After receiving that allocation, the committee engaged Spice Group to complete a study of the waterways to determine if the current plan is the best one or if a series of smaller flood walls and pump stations would solve the problem at a lower cost.

The $40 million will eventually be used to fund either the established plan or a revised version of it following the Spicer study.

The City of Midland also received a Community Development Block Grant of $2.86 million to be used for debris clean-up in the creeks and rivers starting in October 2024 . This clean-up will include Snake and Sturgeon creeks and the State Drain.

“The creeks don’t carry the capacity that they were designed to carry because they’re full of dead trees and debris, and sandbars have eroded because the trees are changing the way the creeks flow,” Fisher said.

Long-term solutions are on a slower path than the short-term solutions, with corps of engineers projects expected to begin in spring 2030.

“2030 is only six years away,” Fisher said. “In the next three years, we would hope to have those short-term projects done, which would protect everybody west of Eastman Road and even east of it for those on Snake Creek.”

The Board of Commissioners expressed appreciation for the update and is glad to see the committee is making progress. Many of the commissioners come from families that have lived in Midland for generations and have heard the stories of past floods.

“My great aunt’s house was down by where the baseball fields are by the Tridge and I remember hearing family stories of her dishes floating out the windows when her house was flooded up to the second story,” Commissioner Alaynah Smith said.
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