Cheboygan River level steady as efforts to keep water flowing continue

George Hunter, The Detroit News on Apr 18, 2026

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CHEBOYGAN, Mich. ― The Cheboygan River level rose 0.24 inches Saturday, returning to where it was Friday night.

At 1:30 p.m. Saturday the river was 7.08 inches below the top of the dam, the same number as 10 p.m. Friday. It had been 7.32 inches below the top of the dam at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.

The National Weather Service had forecast a slight chance of rain showers before 2 p.m. Saturday with a 40% chance of snow showers, mainly between 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 a.m. Sunday, and a low of about 28 degrees.

Michigan State Police said work continued Saturday at the Cheboygan Lock and Dam complex and smaller upstream dams to keep water flowing safely into Lake Huron.

“The turbines are running and moving a substantial amount of water,” said Mike Janisse, co-leader of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Incident Management Team, in a press release Saturday. “We are grateful to the many local, state, federal and private partners that have worked beside us in this effort.”

The Cheboygan River level spent much of Friday declining after the reactivation.

The state is also working with private dam owners to bolster dams further upstream to prevent breaches or flooding, and boats are also collecting debris from the river to keep it from entering the dam complex, according to the release.

Fluctuations in the river level had been considered likely by authorities.

On Friday, the river had improved about 2 inches from the mark of 5.16 inches at 8:45 a.m., according to the Michigan State Police Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division.

"They’re expected to fluctuate further as water moves into the basin from upstream. Consumers Energy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, state agencies and other contractors worked long hours to reopen the powerhouse," according to a Friday night post from the Michigan State Police's Emergency Management and Homeland Security division on Facebook.

Officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, said Friday in a Facebook statement that they worked with the state police's emergency management division, Consumers Energy and the dam's private owner to restart the hydroelectric plant’s turbine and return it to full capacity.

"This is intended to help move water through the dam," Army Corps officials said. "We are also working with dam safety partners across the state to assess watershed impacts and support the evaluation and modeling of dams in Cheboygan County."

Friday's overall water level drop was the first decline in six days. State officials alerted the public about the dam emergency on April 10 when the river was 18 inches below the dam's top. It then fell 2 inches to 20 inches below cresting on Saturday before starting five consecutive days of rising levels.

Richard Hill of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources' Incident Management Team said in a statement that restarting the turbine at the Cheboygan Dam Hydroelectric Powerhouse "was technical and exacting, involving rewiring circuits, testing machinery that has been idle for years and connecting the power station to the grid.”

Residents were buoyed by the restarting of the hydroelectric turbine. The water level at the Cheboygan Dam had already dipped before the machinery came online.

“That’s good news for a change,” said Patti Stone of Cheboygan. “We needed to hear something good.”

Stone's home was safe from flooding, but she said she knows people who live along the Cheboygan River and worried about businesses located downriver from the dam.

Vicki Alexander of Cheboygan said she’s been worried for days about the impact of a cresting dam on the city of more than 4,800 residents.

The city’s downtown is directly downriver from the structure.

“It’s a sitting duck. I mean, the city would be underwater,” Alexander said.

The seawalls armoring the riverbanks downriver of the dam would help to contain some of the water, and any flooding over those seawalls would crest at 2 feet in a limited area around the river, Department of Natural Resources senior engineer Michelle Crook said earlier this week.

The earlier dropping water level, the hydro dam coming back to life, and the 70-degree day on Friday put Alexander in a better frame of mind.

“It’s beautiful out,” she exclaimed. “If the water keeps falling, everything will be perfect.”