The Sixth Great Lake The Emergency Threatening Michigan’s Overlooked Groundwater Resource SEPTEMBER 2018 ICHIGAN IS “THE GREAT LAKES STATE” – but is a poor steward of the sixth Great Lake, the M water lying beneath Michigan’s ground. It is an immense resource. The volume of ground- water in the Great Lakes watershed is roughly equal to the volume of Lake Huron. Often over- looked because it is out of sight, Michigan’s groundwater is a giant asset and life-giving resource. Michigan has more private drinking water wells several regions of Michigan and may never be cleaned drilled annually than any other state. About 45% of up. One such plume has fouled an estimated 13 trillion the state’s population depends on groundwater as its gallons of groundwater— a volume of water equal to drinking water source. Over 260 million gallons of more than 17 years of Lake Michigan water flowing groundwater are withdrawn daily in Michigan for through the Chicago diversion – and both represent irrigation. Michigan industries withdraw 64 million a loss of usable water to the Great Lakes system. At gallons of groundwater daily from on-site wells. As approximately 1,100 locations known to state govern- much as 42% of the water in the Great Lakes origi- ment, contaminated groundwater is legally flowing nates from groundwater. directly into streams and lakes with little or no treat- ment. Agricultural wastes have polluted drinking water For a resource so vital to human health and the econo- at thousands of sites across Michigan, even as contam- my, Michigan’s groundwater is shabbily treated in both ination from leaking storage tanks and industrial facili- policy and practice. Of the 50 states, only Michigan ties continues to be discovered. lacks a statewide law protecting groundwater from septic systems – and there are an estimated 130,000 This is no way to treat our water. Indeed, we would leaking septic systems within Michigan’s borders. never treat groundwater this way if it were as visible as surface water. The Legislature’s neglect of groundwa- Michigan also has over 3,000 groundwater sites whose ter is inconsistent with Michigan’s 1963 Constitution, contamination is so severe that state law bars their which mandates that the “Legislature shall provide for further use. Giant plumes – waves of chemical contam- the protection of air, water, and other natural resources inants moving in groundwater – are spreading across of the state from pollution, impairment or destruc- tion.”1 Groundwater should not be society’s subsurface • The Michigan Legislature should declare ground- wastebasket. water sources for public water works systems legal- ly protected zones, and impose special standards If Michigan is to rely on groundwater to help meet for groundwater protection and restoration if or its future needs, it must reform its groundwater prac- when contaminated. tices – and articulate a groundwater policy. It must protect groundwater from further pollution rather • The Michigan Legislature should enact a law requir- than allow future contamination to remain in place if ing all septic systems to be periodically inspected human exposure is temporarily controlled. Michigan and properly maintained, making Michigan the must close loopholes that allow significant sources of 50th and last state to adopt a uniform septic code. groundwater pollution to continue unabated. Perhaps • The Michigan Department of Environmental Qual- most importantly, the state must educate and equip all ity should publish a biennial report on the state of its citizens with basic knowledge and understanding of groundwater in Michigan including a map and that unseen water is not unimportant water – in fact, it is vital to the quality of life and prosperity of Michigan ranking of the 100 contaminated groundwater sites and to the Great Lakes. that pose the greatest risk to human health and the environment. HERE ARE KEY RECOMMENDATIONS • The State of Michigan should aggressively prevent, OF THIS REPORT: detect and clean up nitrate pollution resulting from • The state should articulate a groundwater policy farm practices and assist rural communities in and law that reaffirms groundwater is directly con- obtaining safe, nitrate-free drinking water. nected to surface water as part of a single hydro- • The State of Michigan should improve groundwater logic cycle, protecting this paramount public trust data collection and reporting and work with U.S. resource from impairment and degradation. This Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. will assure it can serve as a sustainable source of Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic safe drinking water, health, and sustenance, support and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and healthy ecosystems and serve other societal needs. Great Lakes states to improve understanding of • The state should identify a long-term funding the effects of groundwater contamination on Great source, such as a voter-approved bond, and ap- Lakes water quality. propriate funding needed to clean up over 6,000 • The Michigan Legislature should appropriate ade- remaining sites with contaminated groundwater quate funds to enable municipalities, MSU Exten- where no other viable party can be found to pay for cleanup. A reasonable estimate of the need is sion, nonprofit organizations and others to conduct expenditures of $50 million per year for the next 20 a statewide groundwater education program. years, or $1 billion. This report is FLOW’s initial review of Michigan’s • The Michigan Legislature should end the creation groundwater emergency. It does not examine the full of automatic legal “sacrifice zones,” where ground- multitude of pollution sources that threaten Michi- water use is restricted or banned for contaminated gan groundwater, including traditional underground waters discovered after December 31, 2018. Those injection of liquid wastes, conventional oil and gas who contaminate groundwater after that date extraction, fracking, permitted discharges, and more. should be required to restore it – or if they can’t Rather, it explores three primary threats where state cost-effectively do so, pay damages to the State of policy falls short of protecting this vital resource and Michigan for polluting the public’s water resources. proposes actions to deal with them as well an over- • The Michigan Legislature should appropriate arching groundwater policy. FLOW is committed to adequate funding to enable owners of residential further research and education on the importance drinking water wells to obtain testing of well water of Michigan’s groundwater in both public policy and samples. private practices. 2 The Sixth Great Lake What is Groundwater and Why Does It Matter? 2016 science report to the Canadian and U.S. tiny gaps between sediment grains, called pore spaces, A governments observed, “Groundwater, being out are filled with either air or water. Water here can be of sight, remains an enigma to many people, including trapped and used by plant roots or percolate down- those who rely on it for their water supplies.”2 Nothing ward into the saturated zone, where water exclusively could be truer. Until drinking water that comes from fills the pore spaces. groundwater sources is polluted, most of us never think about it. The division between the unsaturated and saturated zone is called the water table. This two-dimensional The hydrologic cycle governs water movement through plane often follows the contours of the surface above, the ecosphere and its passage through the soil subsur- moving seasonally based on precipitation events. face. Surface water is heated by the sun and evaporates Groundwater in the saturated zone moves both verti- into the atmosphere, forming clouds. These clouds cally and horizontally, flowing towards a lower ele- condense and precipitation falls back to earth as rain, vation discharge point like a stream or a lake. These snow, sleet or hail. Water will then either return to a surface bodies of water often rely on groundwater surface body of water or seep into the soil and move sources, in addition to precipitation, to recharge their through the crust as groundwater. water levels. After re-entering a surface body of water, the water continues through the hydrologic cycle. Some may envision groundwater as an underground river or lake, but groundwater is held in tiny pore As groundwater moves through the surface of the spaces in the rock and soil. After water is absorbed into earth, it often travels through an aquifer. Aquifers are the ground, gravity pulls the water down through the underground formations that contain water at high unsaturated zone. This area of the earth’s crust is where enough concentrations that we can sustainably pump Source: USGS (https://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthgwaquifer.html) The Emergency Threatening Michigan’s Overlooked Groundwater Resource 3 groundwater from them for freshwater use. The two types of aquifers are called confined Confined vs. Unconfined Aquifers and unconfined aquifers, differing in whether or not there is an impermeable layer between the surface and the aquifer or not. Both types of aquifer can be used as a freshwater source, but unconfined aquifers are much more easily affected by surface actions and contamination and are more susceptible to pollution and degradation. Almost all groundwater will discharge into surface water, unless it is extracted first. As a result, contaminated groundwater can degrade lakes, streams and the Great Lakes. “Discharge of groundwater is likely an important vector [path] for some contaminants that affect the Great Lakes,” scientists reported in 2016.2 Though groundwater is considered a renew- able resource, its recharge occurs much more slowly than other renewable resources. Typi- cally groundwater moves much more slowly than a stream or river, often traveling less than Source: USGS one foot per day. (https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1186/html/gen_facts.html) Groundwater makes up about 25% of the world’s freshwater, with nearly all of the re- maining freshwater stored in ice. About 90% of freshwater in the United States is classified Michigan Groundwater as groundwater according to the National Withdrawals 2016 Groundwater Association.