{"id":406986,"date":"2026-01-14T16:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/406986\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T16:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:52:08","slug":"michigans-groundwater-system-likened-to-a-sixth-great-lake-910news-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/406986\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan\u2019s groundwater system likened to a sixth Great Lake \u2013 910News.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

LANSING \u2014 Michigan environmental experts say that the state\u2019s groundwater system is so expansive that it should be treated as a sixth Great Lake.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s groundwater network contains as much water as Lake Huron, and more than half of all Michigan residents and businesses rely on groundwater day to day.<\/p>\n

Michigan\u2019s water use is partially regulated by the Great Lakes Compact, an agreement between Michigan and seven other states to conserve the region\u2019s resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is that you don\u2019t want to take out more than what is available to remove without actually causing an environmental impact,\u201d said Lena Pappas, EGLE\u2019s Groundwater and Geologic Services Manager.<\/p>\n

Pappas helped develop a reworked tool that must be used by those making large water use requests. That work was highlighted in the 2025 State of the Great Lakes report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She says that the modernized system will help ensure Michigan is holding up its obligations to the compact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tools that we built, that I spoke about in the the report \u2014 it directly relates to our ability to be able to do that in a protective and efficient way, to provide those registration services for water users across the state,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Large-scale requests are defined as using more than 100,000 gallons of water a day.<\/p>\n

The new system could be utilized by developers of data centers, which use large amounts of water to cool down computer parts.<\/p>\n

Sara Pearson is director of the Michigan Geological Survey, a research institution that maps many of the state\u2019s natural resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cGroundwater is something that we can\u2019t see \u2014 you know, it\u2019s easy to see a lake or stream, rivers \u2014 but there\u2019s water that exists within the pore spaces in the soil beneath our feet or in the bedrock,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really difficult to manage something when you don\u2019t know how much you have and you don\u2019t know where it all is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearson and her researchers are involved in developing other tools to help the state and water users better track the use of resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gathering all kinds of data and determining where the water is going, how it\u2019s used in the communities, how much water is used,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd there will be a dashboard where you can create scenarios and determine where water might be needed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LANSING \u2014 Michigan environmental experts say that the state\u2019s groundwater system is so expansive that it should be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79,63921],"class_list":{"0":"post-406986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-social-content"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}