Special Report

Current water shortages

Together, the lack of scientific information and the absence of state water supply oversight are causing water shortages and high management costs in many parts of the state. In Saginaw and Kent counties, for instance, wells are running dry.

Kevin Datte, director of the Saginaw County Department of Public Health’s Environmental Health Services Division, describes a troubling situation in his January 2001 ìReport On Groundwater Withdrawal Conflicts.” In several Saginaw County townships, he writes, groundwater supplies no longer meet the cumulative needs of farmers, business interests, and residential users.

Saginaw County traditionally had more than enough groundwater to supply community need. Water demand rose noticeably after 1994, however, because of a growing and increasingly large-scale agricultural industry, as well as new commercial uses, such as golf courses. Problem wells, dry wells, and the high cost of drilling new wells have now forced the county and local residents to take court action against one large agricultural user.

Mr. Datte estimated that, since 1994, at least 140 residents in several townships experienced changes in both water quantity and pressure because of intense water use nearby. Many residents resorted to replacing their wells, a service that can cost as much as $2,850, according to Mr. Datte. Several Saginaw County townships have limited further development by placing moratoria on the drilling of new irrigation wells. The state is now spending $100,000 to study the region’s aquifers and try to solve the problem ó after the fact.

In the Grand River watershed, citizens in Cannon Township, north of Grand Rapids, experienced problems in 2000 pumping groundwater for showers, car washing, and lawn care. Residents of the Hunter’s Ridge subdivision reported their wells were losing pressure and, at times, sucking sand. The reports came shortly after the city of Rockford switched its municipal public water supply from the Rogue River to a local underground reserve. Despite independent hydrological studies that found continued pumping would likely compound the problem, the city was unwilling to accept responsibility or adjust withdrawal rates. It had followed state law on well construction to the letter. In fact, it had followed state law so closely that, like state law, it failed to consider effects on connected waters.

The price of water waste

It takes ever larger and more expensive pumping, purification, and distribution systems to keep up with demand when users ó and state government ó pay little attention to water efficiency.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, the third largest water utility in the nation, has access to a robust water supply out of Lake St. Clair, for example. But its capacity to meet demand is taxed by an aging infrastructure, virtually unchecked suburban growth, and wasteful water use. ìPeople are over-watering. There’s no doubt about it,” Macomb Township Director of Public Works David Koss told the Detroit News. ìYou’ve got people watering pavement.”

And that pavement is growing. Development around Detroit now spreads faster than the city can extend water service. In the face of record water demand, Detroit Water and Sewerage plans to spend at least $4.3 billion by 2006 to boost supply to rapidly expanding suburbs.