Star Tribune
Sullivan Lake in Lake County is no more after a century-old dam fails in heavy rains
DULUTH — A northeast Minnesota lake drained to its muddy bottom in last week’s torrential rain, pushing its water through an already-swollen river basin.
Lake County’s Sullivan Lake, next to a popular campground about 25 miles north of Two Harbors, nearly emptied after water broke through its small 124-year-old dam, constructed of wood, stone and dirt.
The disappearance of an entire lake “is crazy,” and Lake County is looking into what happens next, said Matt Pollmann, its emergency management director.
The lake was about 45 acres and seven feet deep at its greatest depth. Its contents added to the deluge filling the Cloquet River, but it only increased its power slightly, said Ketzel Levens, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Duluth. At its peak, water flowed at a rate of 6,200 cubic feet per second, and the lake water contributed up to 5% of that flow, she said, making it a “drop in a much larger bucket.”
The U.S. Forest Service owns the old logging dam and will work with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on whether to rebuild it, or let the body of water return to its natural state as a channel, said Joy Vandrie, with the Superior National Forest. She said that when dammed, it is technically a reservoir, and not a lake.
Records show the 7-foot-tall dam was built in 1900. Because it is classified as a low hazard dam, it’s inspected once a decade, Vandrie said, and was last inspected in 2017. A low-hazard classification means physical, economic and environmental harm is minimal if it fails. Many old wooden logging dams remain across the federal forest land.
The Forest Service said the dam failed without risk to downstream property owners.
In a press release, St. Louis and Lake counties said the failure of the dam could have increased flooding in the Brimson and Island Lake areas.
“It’s almost like there was an extra surge that came down with that water,” said St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay in a separate interview. “The one thing it’s brought to light is there are a lot of dams on lakes and bodies of water that we should probably be doing a better job of monitoring.”
Dave Anderson is a musician who lives on Indian Lake in Brimson, Minn., about 10 miles from Sullivan Lake. The home he’s owned for nearly five decades filled with 40 inches of water beginning Wednesday morning, as the Cloquet River emptied into Indian Lake. Others in the area received some damage, but nothing like his property, he said. He wonders if the dam failure made things worse.
“It was coming up about an inch every 10 minutes,” Anderson said, maxing out his rain gauge. “I’ve never seen water rise like that in my life. I was racing to get stuff out of the water.”
Neighbors arrived to help him move as many possessions as possible to higher ground, including precious guitars, amps and other musical accessories. But his solid pine floors are a loss, he said, as are his appliances. His garage and other outbuildings filled with water and his septic system backed up into the house.
“Most everything is gone,” he said, and now his time is filled with “frustrating phone calls” with his insurance company and others as he seeks help.
Levens said the 5-7 inches of rain that fell in six hours or less beginning June 18 pushed the Cloquet River even higher than it rose during the flooding of 2012.
“It was a pretty major flooding event,” she said.
Star Tribune
In their final meeting, Xi tells Biden that China is ready to work with a new US administration
LIMA, Peru — In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Joe Biden that ‘’China is ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.
The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Biden said that he was proud of the work the nations had achieved since their last meeting, which was last year on the sidelines of the conference held in San Francisco.
”Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” Biden said.
It’s the last time they will meet; Biden is leaving office and making way for Trump. There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
LIMA, Peru (AP) — President Joe Biden is expected to use his final meeting with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to urge him to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Saturday’s talks on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru come just over two months before Biden leaves office and makes way for Republican President-elect Donald Trump. It will be Biden’s last check-in with Xi — someone the Democrat saw as his most consequential peer on the world stage.
An interception by junior defensive back Isaac Fredin set up a short field for the Tigers’ final dagger — a rushing touchdown from Vanderwerf.
A late fourth-down stuff by Springfield junior linebacker Aidel Trevino and senior defensive back Russell Beers, plus a pass breakup by senior defensive back Brayden Sturm, kept the Thunderbirds from finding the end zone.
“[A slow start is] something we’ve got to fix before next week,” Springfield head coach Adam Meyer said. “You want to play well from the very first kick. … As a play caller, I know I need to be a little bit more aggressive early.”
Defending Class 1A state champion Minneota seemed to welcome Parkers Prairie to the latter program’s first Class 1A state tournament semifinal at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Shortly after figuratively extending its right hand to greet the upstart Panthers, however, the Vikings let go and the joke was on . Minneota clobbered Parkers Prairie early and often and rolled to a 45-0 victory, remaining undefeated (12-0). The Vikings advance to face Springfield for the third consecutive time in the Class 1A Prep Bowl, this one set for 10 a.m. Friday at U.S. Bank Stadium.
“We have had a couple games lately where we started fast but got away from executing like we want to,” Minneota coach Chad Johnston said. “Today, we set the tempo right away and we pretty much stuck with it.”
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has selected Chris Wright, a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive, to serve as energy secretary in a second Trump administration.
Wright, CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. ”energy dominance” in the global market.
Wright has won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term.
Hamm helped organize an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April where Trump reportedly asked industry leaders and lobbyists to donate $1 billion to Trump’s campaign, with the expectation that Trump would curtail environmental regulations if re-elected.
Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change and could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals by the Biden administration.
Wright has criticized what he calls a ”top-down” approach to climate by liberal and left-wing groups and said the climate movement around the world is ”collapsing under its own weight.”
