FLOW Executive Director Liz Kirkwood sat down with the Northern Express to talk about Michigan’s unheralded “Sixth Great Lake”: Groundwater. In the July 31, 2023 issue, learn about Michigan’s hydrological connections, and how FLOW is working to protect all the waters of the Great Lakes Basin through our work on education, septic codes, and polluter pay laws.
Michigan’s Sixth Great Lake: Northern Express July 31, 2023 >>
This fall, the Michigan legislature will have an opportunity to correct a grievous and egregious deficiency in Michigan’s water policy. How is it that in the third decade of the 21st Century, Michigan, the Great Lakes State, is the only state of 50 without a statewide code setting minimum standards for the design, construction, and inspection of septic systems?
When surveyed, Michigan citizens clearly value and take pride in our water wealth and broadly share concerns over protecting this extraordinary natural resource. Yet it appears that the beauty and superabundance of the Great Lakes and tributary rivers and streams conceal the very real harms that are well known to scientists, environmental professionals, and public health officials.
Studies have revealed that all the river systems within the lower peninsula are contaminated with human microbial fecal matter attributable to failing and substandard septic systems. In most Michigan counties there is no requirement to inspect septic systems or even pump out septic tanks. Indeed, the few county programs that attempt to inspect household septic systems when homes are sold have found that some homes are neither connected to municipal waste systems nor have any septic system whatsoever.
Fortunately, Senator Sam Singh and Representative Phil Skaggs (D – 80th) have introduced twin bills – Senate Bills 299 and 300; House Bills 4479 and 4480 – that would rectify this situation, setting minimum state performance standards for onsite wastewater treatment systems and requiring periodic inspections of existing systems.
Most Michigan citizens are surprised and disheartened to learn that Michigan is the only state in the nation with 19th Century onsite waste policies.
That is why FLOW has taken a leadership role in advancing these needed reforms and is asking its supporters to reach out to their elected representatives and insist that corrective legislation pass this fall.
Editor’s note: Register today! FLOW will host a webinar on Tuesday, March 21, offering legal, scientific, economic, and political perspectives on the urgent need and critical opportunity for Michigan to finally join the rest of the nation in adopting a law to protect public health and fresh water from septic pollution. The online event is free and open to the public. Learn more and register today! Follow FLOW’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to stay current. Also see FLOW’s legislative agenda in Michigan, which highlights the need for a septic code.
By Skip Pruss, FLOW Legal Advisor
How is it that Michigan, the Great Lakes State, surrounded by the largest, most valuable fresh surface water system in the world, is the only state in the nation without standards to address defective and failing septic systems?
Skip Pruss, FLOW Legal Advisor
Yes, it’s true. The other 49 states recognize that failing and substandard septic systems represent a clear and present danger to public health and the environment. The other 49 states have laws that set minimum standards for the construction, maintenance, and inspection of septic systems for treating human sewage—but remarkably, Michigan has not.
And we know that Michigan’s neglect has led to widespread surface water and groundwater contamination.
Scientific studies have shown that human fecal contamination can be found in 100% of our river systems in the Lower Peninsula and that substandard, failing, or nonexistent septic systems are the primary cause. Statewide, up to 26 percent of Michigan’s 1.3 million septic systems at homes and businesses may be failing, with many of those floundering systems located on our Great Lakes shorelines and on our inland lakes and streams.
Failing septic systems deliver disease-causing pathogens to surface water and groundwater. They can elevate nitrate levels in drinking water, putting infants and pregnant women at risk, and cause harmful algae blooms. Poorly maintained septic systems can result in the need for expensive repairs or replacement, impairing property values.
Michigan’s new legislature has the opportunity to accomplish what prior legislatures have been unable or unwilling to do—set legal standards for the reasonable oversight of onsite wastewater treatment systems, as every other state has done. Enacting legislation will help identify failing systems, protect groundwater and drinking water wells, support property values, and reduce contaminated wastewater migrating to our lakes, rivers, and streams.
The Great Lakes surrounding Michigan hold 95 percent of all available fresh surface water in the United States and 84 percent of all fresh surface water in North America. We are blessed with over 3,200 miles of Great Lakes coastline—the largest freshwater coastline in the world.
Safeguarding our Great Lakes is a deeply shared value. Polling by the International Joint Commission has found overwhelming support (88 percent) for protecting water quality across broad demographic groups and respondents of all ages.
Despite daily indications of bitter polarization in our politics, properly addressing failing septic systems is a rare area of political consensus. Protecting Michigan’s extraordinary water resources is an important area of common ground, bringing citizens together in common purpose and bridging political divides.
Now is the time.
Skip Pruss is a legal adviser with FLOW and formerly directed the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth. You can reach him at pruss@5lakesenergy.com.
Photo of children playing at Lake Michigan by Chelsea Bay Dennis.
Editor’s note: Sign up today for FLOW’s twice-monthly e-newsletter for updates on the advancement of these legislative recommendations and take action opportunities in support of keeping water public and protected.
Michigan’s 2023-2024 legislative session in Lansing is a chance to apply long-overdue solutions to the state’s biggest water problems, and FLOW has big ideas on how to ensure the waters of the Great Lakes State are healthy, public, and protected for all.
Capitol of Michigan (Photo credit: David Marvin via http://capitol.michigan.gov/)
Today FLOW is pleased to release our legislative agenda by sharing it directly with lawmakers in the Michigan House and Senate and publicizing it broadly with our partners and supporters to help us advance it. FLOW is calling on Michigan’s 102nd Legislature to:
During the last several decades, Michigan has lost its reputation as a leader in the country in water protection. Acting now on these priorities can begin restoring Michigan’s environment in ways that other states would envy.
Septic system: click to enlarge.
The Problem—Michigan is the only U.S. state without a uniform septic code governing the construction, maintenance, and inspection of septic systems. As a result, the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) estimates that roughly 330,000 failing septic systems are polluting ground and surface waters with human fecal microbial waste. In addition to harming our natural resources, this septic contamination poses a serious public health problem to the drinking water of nearly 4 million Michiganders who rely on private wells.
The Solution—The keys to overcoming more than 30 years of legislative gridlock in passing a statewide septic code are establishing a reasonable inspection schedule, ensuring county health departments have sufficient resources to administer inspections, and providing financial assistance to septic owners who may not be able to afford the cost of septic repairs or replacements.
Photo by Chelsea Bay Dennis.
The Problem—Over the last three decades, the Michigan Legislature has enacted polluter entitlement laws that prevent state agencies from adequately protecting water resources. These destructive legislative actions include:
Michigan now has 24,000 known contaminated sites, including thousands of known and unknown sources of groundwater and surface water contamination. More than half are “orphaned” sites with no known responsible party, resulting in the state being responsible for assessing and remediating these sites without adequate funding.
The Solution—The answer is to pass legislation that restores polluter pay, limits the use of “institutional controls” as a cleanup option unless other remedial alternatives would increase exposure to the contaminants at issue, and eliminates Michigan’s “no stricter than federal” law.
The Problem—Bottled water plants in Michigan make hundreds of millions of dollars each year selling waters of the state without providing a significant benefit to Michiganders. Michigan has the right and obligation to secure greater benefits for its citizens based on the sale of a publicly owned natural resource. This is especially true when a large and increasing number of Michiganders in both urban and rural communities cannot afford to pay their water bills and face the prospect of water shutoffs.
Photo: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The Solution—The solution is to enact a bill that expressly affirms public ownership of Michigan’s ground and surface waters, create a licensing system for bottled water facilities that generates state revenue through a royalty fee, and channel this revenue into a public trust fund that helps put an end to water shutoffs.
FLOW will keep you updated on the advancement of these legislative recommendations and provide opportunities to take action in support of keeping water public and protected. Be sure to sign up here for FLOW’s twice-monthly e-newsletter for news, event announcements, and more related to our shared efforts to protect the Great Lakes and groundwater and ensure access to safe and affordable drinking water for all.
Photo: Capitol of Michigan. Credit: David Marvin via http://capitol.michigan.gov/.
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.”
There is good news in the often-overlooked realm of groundwater protection in Michigan: millions of dollars proposed to study and protect Michigan’s vital underground resource. And FLOW is lifting it up during National Groundwater Awareness Week that runs through March 11.
If approved, Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s fiscal year 2024 budget proposal, on top of funding appropriated by the Michigan Legislature last year, will enable implementation of many or most of the groundwater data recommendations of the state Water Use Advisory Council (WUAC) to be implemented in the next year. The governor’s proposed budget includes:
The $23.8 million is in addition to $10 million the legislature appropriated and the governor approved last year to provide funds to address recommendations included in the 2020 Michigan Water Use Advisory Council report.
Groundwater tips: Click to enlarge image.
In 2022, the Michigan Groundwater Table—convened by FLOW and comprised of 22 knowledgeable and influential stakeholders from local government, academia, and regulatory agencies—examined the state’s groundwater data needs, concluding, “It is difficult to manage a resource when basic data are lacking and poorly coordinated.”
The Groundwater Table found that improved data “will not only provide a means of informing and supporting water-related programs, but will also yield technical information, tools, data, assumptions, and decision endpoints used to assist water users in resolving and preventing water conflicts. In so doing, WUAC’s recommendations also will benefit the agricultural community and municipal, county, and township governments.” The Groundwater Table report, in turn, endorsed the Water Use Advisory Council recommendations.
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 have stressed that while groundwater is out of sight, Michigan’s residents, communities, businesses, organizations, and government cannot afford to let it slip out of mind.
Did you know that groundwater accounts for at least 25% of the total water inflow to the Great Lakes via groundwater inflow into tributaries? Groundwater is vital to Michigan’s public health, agriculture, economy, wetlands, stream ecology, coldwater fisheries, and the Great Lakes.
Register today for FLOW’s groundwater webinar: The Case for a Statewide Septic Code.
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. Michigan is the only state that does not have a law protecting groundwater (and surface water) from failing septic systems.
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.
Learn more on about FLOW’s program to protect Michigan’s groundwater—the Sixth Great Lake beneath Michigan’s ground that is vital to the quality of life and prosperity of Michigan and the Great Lakes.
Editor’s note: Members of the media are encouraged to register for the webinar. For more information, contact FLOW Executive Director Liz Kirkwood at Liz@FLOWforWater.org or (231) 944-1568.
Register today! FLOW (For Love of Water) will host a webinar—The Case for a Statewide Septic Code: Michigan Must Inspect Septic Systems to Protect Fresh Water—on Tuesday, March 21, from 12 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. EDT.
The online session will offer legal, scientific, economic, and political perspectives on the urgent need and critical opportunity for Michigan to finally join the rest of the nation in adopting a law to protect public health and fresh water from septic pollution. The online event is free and open to the public. Register today!
Billions of gallons of poorly or untreated sewage flow each year into an estimated 330,000 failed septic systems. An unknown amount of that raw sewage ends up in lakes, streams, and groundwater, the source of drinking water for 45% of Michigan’s population.
FLOW Executive Director Liz Kirkwood will host the webinar, and Legal Advisor Skip Pruss will moderate the panel discussion with:
Click here to register for the webinar or go to https://bit.ly/3ZBqwSy.
Click here to learn more about FLOW’s efforts to build awareness of the need for a statewide septic code in Michigan to protect public health and fresh water.
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:
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.
The budget proposal announced by Governor Whitmer on February 8 contains hundreds of millions of dollars in new and increased funding for vital water needs and is an encouraging sign as the new legislative session gets into full swing.
Whitmer’s budget for the fiscal year that begins next October 1 includes the following items:
FLOW is reacting positively to the Governor’s proposal. “Whitmer’s budget reflects her Administration’s continued commitment to securing safe, affordable drinking water for all,” said Liz Kirkwood, FLOW’s Executive Director.
Kirkwood said the Governor’s groundwater funding proposals are welcome. Groundwater protection is a FLOW priority. “We applaud the Administration’s commitment to investing in groundwater management and protection. For too long, Michigan has ignored the vital role of groundwater in protecting our drinking water and the ecological health of rivers, lakes, streams, and wetlands.
“Moving forward,” Kirkwood continued, “FLOW will work to ensure decision-makers scale up long-term investments in our water infrastructure with affordable rates, groundwater management and protection, and climate and community resiliency.”
In a separate bill already signed by the Governor, the Michigan Legislature approved $25 million to establish a water affordability program that would prevent the shutoff of water services to residential customers struggling to pay their water service bills. While the fund lands well short of the need, its establishment is an encouraging sign that the Governor and Legislature understand water service is essential to all Michiganders.
Above: Watershed art by Glenn Wolff.
By Bob Otwell, FLOW Board member
A Great Lakes water use report recently released by the Great Lakes Commission provides an important snapshot of the kinds and volumes of water withdrawals in the region.
Annual Report of the Great Lakes Regional Water Use Database – 2021 data-Jan 2023
The report found that an average 37.5 billion gallons of water per day were withdrawn from the Great Lakes Basin in 2021. Most of this water (71%) was utilized for cooling of power plants. The next highest use was 14% for public water supply. The primary source for both of these two categories is Great Lakes surface water.
The report found that an average 37.5 billion gallons of water per day were withdrawn from the Great Lakes Basin in 2021. Most of this water (71%) was utilized for cooling of power plants.
The report included water use data from eight Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin), and two Canadian provinces (Ontario and Quebec).
Water use was presented from three sources; Great Lakes surface water, other surface water (rivers and lakes), and groundwater. Levels in the Great Lakes have ranged from an all-time low to all-time high over the past decade. Our societal usage of Great Lakes surface water has negligible effect on their levels. Levels in the Great Lakes are primarily influenced by precipitation and evaporation.
Water use was presented from three sources; Great Lakes surface water, other surface water (rivers and lakes), and groundwater.
Groundwater levels have been dropping in some parts of Michigan in recent decades due to overuse. Groundwater was only about 3% of total basin water use. Groundwater withdrawals occurred mostly in three categories: public water supply (41%), industrial (26%), and irrigation (23%). Of these three, irrigation had by far the highest consumptive use (88%) of total use, whereas public water supply and industrial consumptive use comprised just over 10% of total use. Consumptive use refers to the portion of the water withdrawn or withheld from the basin that is lost, or otherwise not returned, to the basin due to evaporation, incorporation into products, or other processes.
Groundwater levels have been dropping in some parts of Michigan in recent decades due to overuse.
Ontario has the largest land area in the basin, and the largest total withdrawal of the 10 jurisdictions. Michigan has the second largest land area but has the largest groundwater withdrawal volume of all states and provinces, 44% of the total. In Michigan, 39% of all groundwater withdrawal is for irrigation.
There are areas in Michigan, like Ottawa County, where groundwater demands exceed sustainable groundwater supply. In Southwest Michigan, the acreage irrigated for agricutlure has increased over the past decade. As we start to use more groundwater in Michigan, care should be taken to improve monitoring and reporting of groundwater levels, along with groundwater usage, on an annual basis.
There are areas in Michigan, like Ottawa County, where groundwater demands exceed sustainable groundwater supply.
The state legislature has recently approved funding for some of this work. The funding provides an educational program to increase agricultural water use efficiency. In addition, a database is being created to help with hydrogeologic data collection and modeling and increasing the availability of existing data in a common format. In 2022, the Michigan Groundwater Table convened by FLOW unanimously approved and encouraged the legislature to embrace these recommendations.
About the Author: Bob Otwell, who has served on FLOW’s Board of Directors since 2013, is a hydrologist, civil engineer, and founder of Otwell Mawby engineering in Traverse City, Michigan.
Photo: Liz Kirkwood is Executive Director of FLOW (For Love Of Water), the Great Lakes law and policy center based in Traverse City, Michigan. Reach her at liz@flowforwater.org.
Editor’s note: The following op-ed originally appeared Jan. 17, 2023, in Bridge Michigan.
Michigan is a water wonderland — think Great Lakes, 36,000 miles of rivers and streams, groundwater that supplies 45 percent of our state with drinking water, and more than 6 million acres of wetlands.
But these waters face a daunting array of challenges, everything from microplastics to toxic “forever chemicals,” inadequate infrastructure funding to the stresses of climate change. The impact on residents includes soaring water bills, water shutoffs and widespread concern about lead and chemical contamination.
In 2023, Michigan needs an inspiring vision for Michigan’s water. I urge Gov. Whitmer in her Jan. 25 State of the State message to declare 2023 the Year of Keeping Water Public and Protected for All in Michigan.
In 2023, Michigan needs an inspiring vision, championed from the highest places inside our government and out. In her State of the State message set for Jan. 25, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has a chance to show the way by articulating bold proposals for Michigan’s water. I urge her to declare 2023 the Year of Keeping Water Public and Protected for All in Michigan.
Our water fares best when it remains in public control.
Privatization of water and sewer services elsewhere has led to inferior maintenance and higher costs to customers. Allowing private interests to commodify groundwater drains a vital public resource without benefit to the public. The future of our water is too important to leave to short-sighted, profit-seeking private interests.
Michigan should ban residential water shutoffs, impose royalties on water bottlers who take waters owned by the State of Michigan at practically no cost, and maintain public control on water services.
Here are a few steps Michigan must take to keep our water public and protected:
Michigan should dedicated more funds to the cleanup of toxic sites and prevention of groundwater contamination, develop new long-term funding sources for our water infrastructure, and require chemical manufacturers to demonstrate the safety of the chemicals before they can be authorized for sale.
We have made considerable progress in dealing with the kind of pollution the 1972 Clean Water Act targeted, but new threats continually emerge for which our laws are ill-prepared. The governor should call for actions to address not only these threats but also the mistakes of the past:
Our actions now will define and shape the future of the Great Lakes. This future demands a new relationship with water, and recognizes, in the words of Jacques Cousteau, that “the water cycle and the life cycle are one.”
Imagine a future where we place water at the center of all decision-making. And imagine the profoundly positive impacts that result in energy choices, food systems, the transportation and housing sectors, urban development, manufacturing and more.
Safeguarding our Great Lakes is a deeply shared value and, keeping our water public and protected for all can help secure Michigan’s future.
Safeguarding our Great Lakes is a deeply shared value and, despite daily indications of bitter polarization in our politics, this important area of common ground bridges political divides. Prudently conceived and boldly implemented, keeping our water public and protected for all can help secure Michigan’s future.
