Celebrate Great Lakes and Freshwater Week

Michigan is a place of natural abundance, but one resource is paramount—water. Michigan Great Lakes and Freshwater Week (June 4-12) is an opportunity to learn more about our state’s water endowment, and how to protect it.

• Freshwater facts: The Great Lakes that surround us contain approximately 20 percent of the world’s available surface fresh water.
• Lake Superior alone has approximately 10 percent of the world’s available surface fresh water.
• Michigan’s boundaries include 38,000 square miles of Great Lakes surface area.
• Michigan has 11,000 inland lakes.
• Michigan has more than 36,000 miles of rivers and streams.
• Michigan has 6.5 million acres of wetlands.
• Groundwater supplies 45 percent of Michigan’s population with drinking water.
• Michigan has 1,233 public beaches.

Michigan’s Great Lakes and Freshwater Week is designed to encourage the public to take direct action to protect our waters. What will you do?

The location and volume of fresh water is one thing, but making sure all citizens have access to it for sanitation and domestic use is equally important. In her proclamation of Great Lakes and Freshwater Week, Governor Whitmer notes the need for “equitable access to affordable, clean water [as] vital to the health of all Michiganders.”

That goal is out of reach for thousands of Michiganders, mostly in urban areas, who suffer from high residential water rates and service shutoffs. Addressing this crisis with changes in public policy is critical to Michigan and should be a priority for the Governor and State Legislature, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Michigan’s Great Lakes and Freshwater Week is designed to encourage the public to take direct action to protect our waters. What will you do?

Steps You Can Take in the Grand Traverse Region: