It fills our wells and grows our food, but is out of sight and under threat
Photo: Groundwater helps recharge the Great Lakes, and is the source of drinking water for 45% of Michigan residents. Credit: José Manuel Suárez, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Editor’s note: Register today for FLOW’s March 21 groundwater webinar, “The Case for a Statewide Septic Code: Michigan Must Inspect Septic Systems to Protect Fresh Water.”
It’s not easy to be aware of something you can’t see. But that’s precisely the challenge from March 5 to 11, National Groundwater Awareness Week.
FLOW is working to inform Michiganders about the critical importance of protecting the state’s groundwater resources. FLOW’s articles, reports, webinars, story map, and podcasts emphasize that while groundwater is out of sight, Michigan’s residents, communities, businesses, organizations, and government cannot afford to let it slip out of mind.
The first step to take toward greater groundwater awareness is to understand it. Groundwater is not an underground lake. It is present beneath Earth’s surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. Groundwater is recharged by rain and snow melt that percolates downward from the soil surface.
Approximately 25% of the volume of the Great Lakes originates from groundwater.
Michigan depends on groundwater as a source of drinking water for more than 4 million people. Here are key points we continue to bring forward as part of our groundwater program:
- Michigan depends on groundwater as a source of drinking water for more than 4 million people, relying on more than 1 million private wells.
- There are an estimated 24,000 contamination sites in Michigan, most involving groundwater pollution. One site alone has contaminated 13 trillion gallons of groundwater.
- Approximately 25% of the volume of the Great Lakes originates from groundwater.
- Groundwater is important to agriculture for irrigation and for industrial processes.FLOW has worked to inform Michiganders about the critical importance of protecting the state’s groundwater resources. Our articles, reports, webinars, story map, and podcasts have stressed that while groundwater is out of sight, we cannot afford to let it slip out of mind.
- Michigan is the only state that does not have a law protecting groundwater (and surface water) from failing septic systems.
- Michigan lacks key data on the volume, location and movement of groundwater.
- Groundwater is in short supply in some areas of the state.
Groundwater is the main source of drinking water for one-third of people living in the United States and 45% of Michigan’s population, which relies more than 1 million private wells.
Michigan depends on groundwater as a source of drinking water for more than 4 million people, relying on more than 1 million private wells.
FLOW’s groundwater policy recommendations include increased funding of groundwater data collection and analysis, a law regulating septic systems, bans on chemicals that frequently contaminate groundwater, monies to enable well owners to get tests on the quality of their water, and funding for cleanup of groundwater contamination.
A state that prides itself as a water wonderland can do better. And it must, for the health of Michigan residents and our future prosperity. Only awareness can make that happen.
Is there any way to determine if our ground water is polluted? J
I just heard Dan Egan last night and the run off from agricultural fertilizer can’t be doing any favors to ground water.
Besides septic regulation which we desperately need can we change agricultural practices as well?
Thank you for your question. You have put your finger on one of Michigan’s greatest groundwater issues — we don’t have enough data in many cases, especially in rural areas, to know how much groundwater is polluted. Instead, we often find out only when a well is tested. Wells can be contaminated without the owner’s knowledge because some contaminants are odorless and tasteless. The good news is that Governor Whitmer has proposed more than $23 million to improve our groundwater data. As for improving agricultural practices to reduce phosphorus runoff and infiltration, we need a broad base of citizen support. Big agricultural interests oppose anything but more taxpayer subsidies for conservation practices.