Fulfilling a request made by FLOW since 2018, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) has elevated groundwater protection on its priority list. In March, EGLE announced it has established a Groundwater and Geological Services section, and declared that groundwater would “be under the radar no more.”
This is about more than boxes on an organizational chart. For years, EGLE and its predecessor, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) shortchanged the importance of groundwater with inadequate emphasis and staff. Yet groundwater is the drinking water source for 45% of Michigan’s population and supplies the base flow for rivers that feed the Great Lakes.
One of the reasons groundwater receives less attention and fewer resources than it needs is that it is out of sight and thus out of mind. Elevating its priority in public policy is critical.
Society’s historic neglect of groundwater is reflected in the fact that Michigan has 26,000 sites with groundwater and soil contamination. There are now more than 3,000 sites in the state where contamination is so severe that people are forbidden to drink their groundwater and/or even walk on the ground. This is documented in a recent report co-authored by FLOW with the Institute of Water Research at Michigan State University.
In our first analysis of Michigan’s groundwater crisis, FLOW charged that the 2018 status quo was “no way to treat our water. Groundwater should not be society’s subsurface
wastebasket. If Michigan is to rely on groundwater to help meet its future needs, it must reform its groundwater practices – and articulate a groundwater policy.”
Our second report, in 2021, held that “groundwater protection and conservation are fundamental tenets of good environmental stewardship. Michigan cannot fulfill its responsibilities as the Great Lakes State if its groundwater is widely polluted, nor can our people, drinking water, trout streams, tourism, agriculture, and businesses thrive unless Michigan practices such stewardship.”
Our groundwater protection recommendations in the two reports are slowly moving ahead. Legislation to establish a sanitary code for the state’s 1.3 million septic tanks, which
pollute both groundwater and surface water, is expected to be pursued again this year. Other recommendations that may move ahead include increased funding for home well-water testing, and groundwater protection grants.
“Today’s stepped-up focus on groundwater is likely to improve future management and decision-making around these irreplaceable underground aquifers,” EGLE said in declaring its increased emphasis on groundwater protection.
FLOW will be keeping tabs to make sure that happens.
EGLE’s move won praise from one of the state’s leading water experts, Dr. Alan Steinman, the Allen and Helen Hunting Research Professor at Grand Valley State University’s Annis Water Resources Institute.“For over 20 years, I and others around the state have lobbied for a greater understanding of our groundwater resources. I applaud EGLE for undertaking this critical initiative, which will allow Michigan to manage our precious groundwater resources in a more informed and sustainable fashion,” Steinman said.
Congratulations to FLOW for continuing advocacy to raise importance of groundwater. Good news from EGLE.
The opening diagram is a poor/confusing representation of the groundwater/surface water interface. Glen Wolff’s drawing much better.