The management and employees of Boyce Hydro, LLC are deeply distressed by the tragic results of the

unprecedented storm that hit the area this week and resulted in the breach of the Edenville and Sanford dams.
We sympathize with those who have lost property and been forced to relocate due to the resulting flooding in
Gladwin and Midland Counties.

In anticipation of what was predicted to be a major storm system, Boyce Hydro’s operators began lowering the
water levels in the impoundments behind the Secord, Smallwood, Edenville and Sanford dams on Friday, May
15th. Despite their round-the-clock efforts, the massive volume of rainfall in the drainage basins of the Tobacco
and Tittabawassee rivers, over an extended period of time, resulted in increasing water levels in the Wixom
reservoir, to two feet below the dam crest. This, combined with wave action due to high winds, eventually
caused the water to penetrate the earthen dike at the east end, saturating it. This resulted in a washout of
approximately 900 feet of the dam on the evening of May 19th, sending large volumes of water downstream
toward the Sanford dam. This volume was more than Sanford dam was capable of handling, and it was
ultimately overtopped, again sending large volumes of water downstream.

In 2006, the Boyce entities acquired the Secord, Smallwood, Edenville and Sanford earthen dams constructed in
1925. They were all licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to produce hydro power.
Since acquiring the Edenville Dam, Boyce has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on engineering solutions
and construction plans conforming to FERC requirements for passing 100% of the Probable Maximum Flood
(PMF), which has been calculated to occur once in every 1,000,000 years. The cost estimate for construction of
the modified spillway plans that were approved by FERC in 2012 exceeded $8 Million, which Boyce did not have
the ability to finance. Boyce sought funding help from the community, without success. Subsequently, Boyce
pursued an interim auxiliary spillway design in consultation with FERC that would have alleviated some of the
spillway deficiency. Despite these years-long efforts to effectuate a solution to the PMF, FERC revoked the
Edenville license in September 2018. Without a FERC license to generate electricity, the only way the Wixom
reservoir water level can be controlled is through the use of the six 20-foot-wide spillway gates.

In October 2018, after the summer boating season, Boyce opened these gates for safety purposes to reduce the
water level of the Wixom impoundment to approximately 7 feet below normal. This pre-emptive measure was
meant to ensure the safety of the dam and the operators under hazardous winter conditions. The following
spring, under pressure from shoreline residents of Wixom Lake, the EGLE and the MDNR, Boyce agreed to raise
the water to its normal summer level.

In September 2019, Boyce applied for a permit from the EGLE to reduce the water level of the Wixom
impoundment, again, due to concern for the safety of its operators and the downstream community. On
November 12, 2019, not having received a permit but believing its safety concerns were paramount, Boyce
began to reduce the water level of the Wixom impoundment. Although the EGLE’s Water Resources Division
and Michigan Department of Natural Resources ultimately denied Boyce’s permit on November 25, 2019, Boyce
continued with the drawdown while it appealed that denial. That appeal is still pending.

In April 2020, again under pressure from the shoreline residents of Wixom Lake, the EGLE and the MDNR, Boyce
began to raise the level of the Wixom impoundment and normal pond level was reached during the first week of
May. Before Boyce did so, the EGLE issued it a permit to raise the impoundment, despite the fact that the EGLE
Dam Safety division was well aware of the Edenville Dam’s inability to meet even 50% of the PMF standard.

Boyce’s actions to lower the Wixom impoundment to preserve the integrity of the Edenville dam and protect its
personnel and downstream residents and property were done under threat of a lawsuit by the Michigan
Attorney General’s Office for millions of dollars in damages for allegedly killing freshwater mussels as a result of
the two winter drawdowns.

“The State agencies clearly care more about mussels living in the impoundment than they do about the people
living downstream of the dams,” said Lee Mueller, Co-Member Manager of Boyce Hydro, LLC.

On April 29, 2020, Boyce filed suit against the EGLE, the MDNR and certain high-level officials in those agencies
in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan for multiple violations arising out of their
regulation and oversight of the Edenville Dam. Two days later, on May 1, 2020, the Michigan Attorney General’s
Office, the EGLE and the MDNR responded by filing suit against Boyce in the Circuit Court of Ingham County,
seeking damages as a result of freshwater mussel deaths allegedly caused by the two winter drawdowns.

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