LANSING, MI — More than six years after it released an estimated 369,000 cubic yards of sediment into the Kalamazoo River during a botched drawdown, a hydroelectric dam company has agreed to pay millions to settle a lawsuit days before trial.
Eagle Creek Renewable Energy will pay $25 million to the state of Michigan following a rapid 2019 drawdown at the Morrow Dam near Kalamazoo, which smothered the river with decades of sediment from Morrow Lake that buried aquatic habitat, altered the river system and complicated an ongoing contamination cleanup.
The company settled on Friday, April 24, four days ahead of a bench trial scheduled to begin April 27 in front of Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Morgan Cole, who signed the consent judgement on April 30…