Trumpland Under Water

credit: Getty Images

Another horrendous example of the failure of providing social goods for private profit--the modus operandi of small government Repugnants--occurred in Michigan this week.  Two private dams failed sending flood waters downstream to ravage a large area along the Tittabawassee River near Midland, MI. [photo]  Ten thousand residents of the city of forty thousand were told to evacuate their homes on Tuesday. Rather than a "mistake", an explanation offered by Total Douche for the failures, the dams owned by Boyce Hydro have a record of mismanagement and neglect.  The country's aging infrastructure is being put to the test of catastrophic climate change and it is failing. The Army Corps of Engineers says fifty-six percent of the nation’s 91,458 dams are privately owned, and a majority of them are more than 50 years old.  The infamous Johnstown, PA flood that took 2,208 lives occurred when another private dam failed in 1889.

The Edenville dam, rated a "high hazard" structure by the Corps, collapsed unable to contain torrential rain, sending waters that drained Wixom Lake downstream to overwhelm the high hazard Sanford dam.  Edenville's operating permit was revoked in 2018 for an inability to handle flood waters.  The state took over regulatory responsibility for the dam in 2018.  The dam was red-flagged for its inadequate spillway as early as the 1990's.  Federal regulators (FERC) wrote, "Boyce has repeatedly failed to comply with the orders of the Regional Engineer and other Commission staff or to work with Commission staff to resolve these instances of noncompliance, notwithstanding being given many opportunities to do so.”  The state's environmental quality agency said in a public statement, Lack of investment in dam infrastructure is not uncommon in Michigan dams, which have suffered from deferred maintenance over the course of decades. That, combined with the historic rainfall and flooding, were factors in the Edenville Dam failure."  Edenville was ninety-six years old.

Boyce Hydro is headed by Lee Muelller who is a public supporter of the Total Douche.  He also emulates the business practices of his hero.  Not wanting to undertake expensive upgrading, Mueller sold four dams including Sanford to a consortium of residents from four surrounding counties who wanted to make the needed retrofitting. The sale agreement stipulated that Boyce or the Four Lakes consortium would make the necessary repairs; apparently the citizens group was counting on Boyce to act. Unfortunately, the sale came to late to spare Midland.

Trumpland is paying dearly for laissez-faire capitalism as practiced by grifters and raiders.   Ironically, if irony was still alive at this late date, Total Douche campaigned on a promise to spend a trillion on infrastructure.  That policy has not materialized other than to build an entirely useless barrier against brown- skinned immigrants. He awarded the largest federal building contract of his entire term in office this week for the border's wall of shame. The $1.3 billion deal to build just 42 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border was awarded to Fisher Sand & Gravel headed by another public toady of Trump.  Total Douche repeatedly urged the contracting agency to award construction contracts to Fisher Sand and Gravel Co. Jared Kushner, whom President Trump recently named as the White House lead for border construction projects, has also reportedly supported the company’s selection.