Millpond loses 1.5 million gallons

Jeff Broddle | Cadillac News The millpond in Manton saw a loss of about 1.5 million gallons of water Monday night after a piece of concrete was removed from the east side of the spillway.

MANTON - Manton city officials called a special meeting for 9 a.m. Nov. 28 at city offices after the loss of 1.5 million gallons of water at the millpond was reported Monday night.

John Glynn, who owns a house on the south side of the pond, told city officials that he has seen the water level drop 18 inches after a large piece of concrete was removed from the east side of the spillway on Nov. 3.

The pond, city officials said, went from 5.3 acres to 3.5 acres. State Department of Environmental Quality regulations continue to affect the pond, a DEQ official said Tuesday.

The concrete boulder was removed by a contractor called in to remove fill brought in without a DEQ permit, according to Bryan Vincent, city superintendent. While there, Vincent had the contractor remove the block of concrete, he said at Monday night's meeting.

Vincent said he did it on the spur of the moment, although the DEQ had ordered its immediate removal in 2001. Vincent said he didn't clear the removal with any city council members or mayor beforehand.

“I probably could have called everybody,” he said.

City council member Bill Sterrett expressed surprise at the news Monday night, which came 10 days after the removal.

“This is the first I've heard about this,” he said. “An hour ago, I had no idea.”

He suggested that the city council meet to discuss the consequences of the concrete block's removal, the dropping of the water level and any disciplinary action that may result.

The millpond dam and its potential removal may be one of the most-studied issues of its kind in the area. The state Department of Natural Resources recently obtained $40,000 to fund a study about three options, which include removal of the dam, repair of the dam or rerouting the streams that feed the millpond.

DNR officials have said they would like to see trout habitat re-established. The removal of the concrete chunk and lowering of the water level may bring about that desire more quickly than originally thought.

“It may be a good thing it happened, but the point is Š you acted on your own. It was not a committee action, it was a one-person action and I'm not comfortable with that,” Sterrett told Vincent on Monday night. “We just made a commitment to the study.”

Vincent said he had already contacted the city's attorney. Mayor Ray Kimbel said the attorney should be contacted by a council member or himself.

DNR, DEQ AND NEIGHBORS REACT

The millpond is the site of the city's original power plant and later on, a saw mill. It is fed by two streams, the Manton Creek and another unnamed tributary that comes from the direction of the city's wastewater treatment plant to the southwest. But since the century-old dam creates the millpond, the water there has become too warm to house trout, which DNR officials would like to restore.

“In terms of fish, the more we can do to get rid of that dam, the better,” DNR fisheries biologist Mark Tonello said Tuesday.

The two streams are cutting through the silted area between them, observers say, and will probably join. That will also help trout habitat, he said.

“By next summer, you'll see wetland emergent vegetation,” he said. “Everyone's afraid they'll be left with a stinking mud flat, but that will only last one summer. They'll be able to watch as the plant succession occurs. That's exciting.”

John and Pat Glynn own riparian rights to the middle of the millpond. They enjoy watching wildlife in and around the pond through a large picture window in their living room. But that emergent vegetation, which Tonello said will include cattails, tag alders, willow trees and eventually aspen, will obscure their view of the blue-ribbon trout stream envisioned by the DNR.

“There will be quack grass five feet tall,” John Glynn said on Tuesday.

Building a walkway over a future wetland isn't an option, he added.

“I can't encroach within 50 feet of the water,” he said. “It's just nuts.”

Glynn said he's been part of a team that stocks 400 to 600 trout every year in Lake Billings.

“They come up through the cut here,” he said, pointing toward his side yard.

Glynn, a former city council member, also was part of the Manton Pathways and Garden project that created a foot trail to the millpond.

“My company put that bridge over the dam,” he said.

Vincent said Monday that the millpond's water level dropped 14 to 16 inches, but that he had anticipated a drop of eight inches.

He said he had hired an excavator to remove fill placed in the old mill's foundation when ordered to do so by DEQ officials, who said the fill was a violation and cited the city. While the excavating equipment was on site, Vincent said he thought pulling the concrete chunk from the spillway was a good idea.

“I saw an opportunity and I took it,” Vincent said.

DEQ district flood plain engineer Sue Conradson said she visited the millpond with Tonello on Tuesday. She said she went at the request of dam safety engineer Jim Pawloski, who works from the Grayling office.

“We saw nothing that required immediate attention,” she said.

The water was clear, not cloudy, and there was no environmental impact, Conradson added.

She said that the millpond will remain under DEQ jurisdiction for now. Rules state that any dam that holds five acres of water during specific flooding conditions is under DEQ regulation.

Further study will be performed, Conradson said.

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