Water quality woes at Consumers Energy dams might complicate their future

Water quality problems caused by six of Consumers Energy Co.'s 13 hydroelectric dams threaten to complicate the utility's controversial plan to sell the dams to a Maryland private equity company.

The Croton Dam on the Muskegon River, the Tippy and Hodenpyl dams on the Manistee River, and the Mio, Alcona and Foote dams on the Au Sable River violate federal water quality standards because the water downstream of the dams is so warm it harms the environment, according to documents filed by the state, Consumers and a coalition of nonprofits with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.