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Reached by Construction Dive, Mueller did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The Michigan State Attorney General\u2019s office filed a brief in <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>support of a motion for summary judgment<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> on May 25 on behalf of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, which are suing Mueller and various companies associated with him. The document alleges Mueller and his company Boyce Hydro are fully to blame for the dam failure.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The document said state and federal inspectors told Mueller of dangerous faults a decade before the dam failed, and notes that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission revoked the dam\u2019s hydropower generator license in 2018.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The document also claimed <\/strong>that Boyce Hydro\u2019s former dam safety engineer and chief operator resigned in protest in 2017 because Mueller allegedly neglected safety measures in favor of various efforts to make a profit. The engineer tried to persuade Mueller to fix the embankment, and expressed frustration over his pursuit of projects like a sawmill, marina and a music festival, according to the filing.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The chief operator testified that he told Mueller that, \u201cYou\u2019re in the hydro business now, you got to pay attention,\u201d according to the brief. Mueller allegedly responded, \u201cI\u2019m not in the hydro business. I\u2019m in the money-making business.\u201d The chief operator resigned in 2017 after Mueller started making plans to dig a pond and develop a subdivision in the area, the document asserts.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In February, the federal <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>court sanctioned Mueller<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> for numerous failures to obey discovery orders and provide information about the dam failure, saying he \u201cengaged in bad faith and\/or contumacious conduct.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n This is not the only lawsuit related to the Edenville Dam failure. In April, dozens of area residents <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>filed a lawsuit against FERC<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> alleging it didn’t follow its obligations, and said that dereliction was a major contributing factor to the incident.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Last year, FERC’s independent forensic team <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>released a report<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> that found that the Edenville incident was “foreseeable and preventable.” A key embankment was compacted improperly when the dams were built in the 1920s, setting them up to fail, and a combination of factors enabled the disaster a century later. However, unlike the assertions in the state\u2019s recent filing,\u00a0FERC said blame was not easy to assign.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe failure cannot reasonably be attributed to any one individual, group, or organization. Instead, it was the overall system for financing, designing, constructing, operating, evaluating, and upgrading the four dams, involving many parties during the nearly 100 years of project history, which fell short in ensuring a safe dam at the Edenville site,\u201d the report stated.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In addition, there is evidence that more dams may be at risk of failures. There are more than 15,000 high-hazard dams owned by entities other than the federal government, according to the<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> Association of State Dam Safety Officials<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>. It would cost $157.5 billion to rehabilitate the nation\u2019s 88,616 deficient non-federal dams \u2014 which dwarfs the amount of funding available \u2014 and that price tag is only rising, per a <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>2023 ASDSO report<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As of 2019, <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>56.4% of U.S. dams were privately owned<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, per the American Society of Civil Engineers, and repairs on these dams can be difficult as regulators have little leverage over owners who don\u2019t have the money or desire to make repairs. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provides another $4 billion for rehabilitation, but it\u2019s not nearly enough to address even the most dangerous of dams.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nPrivate dam failures a big risk<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n