“A year’s worth of work in seven days”: HydroMine operator describes Cheboygan Dam restart

CHEBOYGAN — The man leading the effort to bring the Cheboygan hydroelectric plant back online says he and his team completed what would normally be a year of work in seven days, racing to restart a long-idle powerhouse as floodwaters climbed toward the top of the dam.

Roy Davis of HydroMine Cheboygan, the Wyoming-based company now operating the plant, said the restart was the result of coordination between state, federal and private partners during a record spring flood.

“All the government agencies really came together and gave us resources that we did not have access to as a private company,” Davis said. “Everybody kind of pulled their own weight as far as DNR, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, State of Michigan, even Homeland Security got involved at one point.”

The hydroelectric facility had been offline since a September 2023 fire at the adjacent mill forced power to be disconnected, according to federal records. The current property owner, Hom Paper XI, LLC, acquired the site in early 2023 and has been in correspondence with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission since the fire over the project’s operational status.

HydroMine was brought in under a lease agreement to operate the facility, according to Davis and to a February filing by Hom Paper’s attorney with FERC. Davis said the restoration began during a few weeks last summer with dewatering the plant for the first time in years.

“It was the first time in a long time that the plant had been dewatered, and we worked on fixing the head gate so that you could dewater that plant,” Davis said.

But the real race began this month, with historic floodwaters lapping the top of the Cheboygan dam, inches from overtopping. Davis described an emergency powerhouse teardown once the waters started to rise.

“I put the turbine apart and adjusted and changed the oil in the upper bearing,” Davis said. “We tore the bottom apart and did the same in the lower bearings.”

Davis also credited Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer directly, saying her declaration of a state of emergency triggered the federal response that brought in the Army Corps of Engineers.

“Who really saved Cheboygan was Gretchen Whitmer,” Davis said. “She made a state of emergency, called the Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, D.C., while they called the White House and the White House gave us the Army Corps. I really couldn’t have done it without them, honestly, because they have connections that I just don’t have.

Davis said the restart’s impact on water flow has been measurable.

“The pumps across the river are doing a little over 300 cubic feet per second,” Davis said. “The dam itself does 5,000 cubic feet per second with all the gates. And the hydro plant does 2,500 cubic feet per second. Those are just facts.”

When the turbine briefly tripped offline during the emergency, Davis said the effect was immediate.

“The water levels went up when that hydro plant tripped offline and went from 2,500 cubic feet per second to zero, and the water level rose by three inches in thirty minutes,” Davis said.

In July 2025, FERC ordered Hom Paper XI to submit a plan to restore the project to operational status or surrender its exemption. The commission granted two extensions over the following eight months before the spring flooding began.

On Thursday, FERC sent Hom Paper XI a new letter requiring a dam safety engineer to be on-site within seven days and a full safety assessment to be submitted by May 15. The letter constitutes formal notice under Section 31 of the Federal Power Act, which authorizes civil penalties for non-compliance.

As of Friday, water at the dam was nearly ten inches below the top of the structure. Officials want to see that number at 18 inches.

“We’re still not out of the woods as far as that goes,” Davis said.

Davis said his focus is on the next three weeks as the watershed works through the spring melt.

“My biggest thing right now is we’re trying to get the hydro through the next three weeks so that we get to low water,” Davis said.

He said his team was simply asked to do a job.

“We were asked to do a job, get a hydro plant online, and we did that,” Davis said. “And we’re trying to get a dam not to overtop. So it’s pretty simple at this point.”

Davis said the criticism his team has faced on social media during the emergency has been difficult.

“I’m getting crucified on Facebook, and I don’t have Facebook,” Davis said. “I’m not on the business side of this. I’m just a guy that got a hydro plant running, and the politics behind all this is just unbelievable to me.”

The plant is currently operating under a temporary power agreement with Consumers Energy. Davis said long-term operations remain under negotiation.