Groundwater inventory proposed

[davetclown]

[#0000ff][/#0000ff][#0000ff][/#0000ff][#0000ff][/#0000ff]In an effort to catalog and eventually conserve water use throughout the state and entire Great Lakes region, Michigan lawmakers are weighing legislation that would require the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to inventory and map groundwater resources across the state.

"There's really no good collection of the whole state as far as hydrogeology," state Sen. Patricia Birkholz (R-Saugatuck) told a Senate committee in April. "This bill allows us to take several important steps to protect our groundwater and will lead us to the development of a long-term aquifer protection initiative."

Introduced in March, the bill has cleared the Senate — approved unanimously on Thursday, May 8 — and is now before the House Land Use and Environment Committee.

The House has previously passed legislation requiring resolution of disputes regarding groundwater usage, something which the new Senate bill pushes toward.

Lakes area Sen. Nancy Cassis (R-Orchard Lake, Walled Lake, Wixom, Commerce, Highland, Milford, West Bloomfield, White Lake, Wolverine Lake) voiced her support for the legislation, also pointing out her co-sponsorship of the bill.

"The letters I receive (from constituents) mostly regard protecting our groundwater," Cassis said. "This bill will start the process of looking at our aquifers and developing a way to document it. We need to find out what the situation is on our groundwater inventory and put it on a map."

[b]As a part of the legislation, the DEQ would have to make both the map and inventory available to the general public.

To help pay for the task, water use reporting fees would be increased from $50 to $100 for industrial, processing and irrigation facilities that pump more than 100,000 gallons a day from the ground. Agricultural irrigation facilities, such as large farms, would have to register with the DEQ and also pay these fees, or draw up their own conservation plan.

By doubling the annual water use reporting fees, the bill would likewise double the revenue brought in from $46,805 in 2001-2002 to $93,610 in the next fiscal year.

The DEQ opposes the bill. DEQ officials said they would have to hire about 10 new staffers to meet the bill's requirements, something not possible given the state's budget crisis.

According to data provided by the DEQ, the program requires approximately $150,000 to operate. The remaining costs would be supported by the department's general fund, however money would also have to be used from this revenue to complete the inventory and mapping duties under the bill.

For those in Oakland County, protecting groundwater is clearly a recognized priority with about 450 inland lakes housed within its borders: Groundwater and surface water resources are usually linked.

To protect those resources, the Oakland County Board of Commissioners approved funding three years ago for a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) project to create a comprehensive survey of the water resources in the county.

"This will be a comprehensive countywide study of our water resources — groundwater and surface water," Tom Gordon, Director of Human Services for Oakland County, said in a previous interview. "This will all help us understand water resources in areas not served by Detroit water and using individual wells. This will help us move into the millennium we are now in."

Originally, county staff said the project would take about four years to complete, with final results ready by December 2004. County officials have since received updates on the project as it progresses, with one scheduled for tomorrow, May 22.

Kathy Fraser, an environmental planner with the Oakland County Drain Commissioner's Office, said the survey is in the second year of what is now a five-year plan. Though being overseen by the Oakland County Health Division, she said the drain office has been a key player in the process.

"This is more of a resource assessment of the water resources in Oakland County," Fraser said. "The reason is to get new and more focused information to use."

The last similar survey for Oakland County water resources was released in 1972 based on information obtained in the late 1960s. Another water resource project was conducted in the early 1950s and at least one other significant report was penned prior to World War II.

Fraser said the USGS has established several monitoring locations and groundwater sampling sites throughout the county, as well as started some aquifer modeling to "give a better aquifer picture." Some lake programs are also being conducted, she said.

"We're doing (the survey) to comply with (federal) permits that the state is mandating," Fraser said. "But the state has no information on hand. There's no state map showing where the county waters are, and we're essentially telling them (that)."[b]

[b]Cassis said the state's proposed effort would go hand-in-hand with what the county is doing, and both would likely work toward the same goal.

"Why reinvent the wheel?" Cassis asked rhetorically. "We need to share that information and utilize it so that it can be a part of the whole process."
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