State of Michigan Water Infrastructure Regional Planning
The State of Michigan, Michigan, USA
The Michigan Center for Freshwater Innovation (MCFI), a collaboration between the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University and a number of regional stakeholders, assisted the State of Michigan's office of the Environment Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) to develop an action plan to promote regional planning to ensure that the state's infrastructure investments are equitable and result in high-quality drinking water at the lowest cost.
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Principal Investigators
Executive Order 2021-9, Safe Drinking Water: EGLE must develop a proposal that promotes regional planning to ensure the state's infrastructure investments are equitable and result in high-quality drinking water at the lowest cost.
On November 4th, 2021, Michigan Governor Whitmer issued Executive Order 2021-9, Safe Drinking Water. In this order, the Governor directed the Michigan Department of the Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to undertake a comprehensive review of the state's role in its drinking water systems. This review focuses on prevention and response when water quality issues arise. Moreover, the review is to result in action by providing recommendations to “ensure every parent can hand their child a glass of water with confidence.” EGLE and MDHHS were tasked with completing this review no later than December 31, 2022, and were directed to jointly provide status updates at least once every three months until the review is complete. Within Executive Order 2021-9, the Governor outlined six specific Directives. Directive 6 states:
"Regional planning. EGLE must develop a proposal that promotes regional planning to ensure the state's infrastructure investments are equitable and result in high-quality drinking water at the lowest cost. This proposal should explore opportunities for shared services and identify incentives for action and roadblocks that deter the ability of public water supplies to provide water to residents outside a supply's current service area but whose current source of water is compromised, threatened, or unsustainable."
The Michigan Center for Freshwater Innovation (MCFI), a collaboration between the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University and a number of regional stakeholders, was contracted to assist the State of Michigan's office of the Environment Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) with Directive 6 under this order to develop an action plan to promote regional planning to ensure that the state's infrastructure investments are equitable and result in high-quality drinking water at the lowest cost.
Study Findings
Michigan community water systems face a number of challenges, and regional planning and collaboration can assist them to improve performance. Some of the principal challenges include affordability, aging infrastructure, increasing water shortages, environmental justice, workforce issues, emerging contaminants such as PFAS, and harmful algal blooms.
Systems using groundwater supplies may benefit the most from regional planning. Of the total of 1,400 community water supplies, 1,341 rely on groundwater which serve 45 percent of the population served by community systems. The other 55 percent of the Michigan public is served by 59 community surface water supplies (systems); 53 supply Great Lakes water, and only six use inland surface water. Analysis performed as part of this study indicates that systems using groundwater may be subject to the greatest threats to service provision. The state’s 9,500 noncommunity water systems serving schools, restaurants, motels, campgrounds, and churches also predominantly use groundwater and can benefit from regional planning.
The benefits of and barriers to regional planning and collaboration are well known. These are well-known from the literature and were well-reinforced through the interviews and roundtables conducted as part of this study. Benefits include improved service delivery, reduced cost through utilization of economies of scale, and greater anticipation and planning for evolving situations such as population growth and decline. Barriers can generally be categorized as feasibility, resource, willingness, and knowledge issues.
While barriers exist to regional planning and collaboration, approaches to encourage and accelerate such collaboration are available. These are well-known from the literature and are applicable to Michigan. In fact, several successful examples within the State of Michigan were identified through the course of the interviews and roundtables.
Successful collaborations require investments to seed and promote working relationships. Outcomes from the interviews and roundtables emphasized that partnerships are built over time, that multiple relationships between individuals within each collaborating organization are necessary, and that strong leadership can both accelerate and sustain partnerships. An “honest broker” may be needed in some instances to initiate and develop effective collaborations.
The existing regional planning councils provide a framework for regional water service delivery planning and implementation. Michigan is divided into fourteen planning and development regions, each having a regional council. These voluntary sub-state units have a potential role to play in water resource planning and management at the regional level. Their environment planning tasks already have some water components. For example, all regional councils in Michigan are designated as areawide water planning and management agencies by the state under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Many regional councils either lead or participate in watershed management planning groups. While watershed management is focused on the Clean Water Act, there may be potential to tie their activities to the Safe Drinking Water Act. The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) also supports a task force on water infrastructure. These should include and develop relationships with the County Health units, particularly when dealing with the 2.5% of the CWS that have a health MCL or treatment technology violation or PFAS contamination.
A wide range of regional collaboration models are available. A summary of relevant options, along with implementation considerations, cost and efficiency considerations, and system outcomes were provided in final report.
A series of recommendations included in this study will be released in early 2023
Funding Source
State of Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy
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