The budget for fiscal year 2026 helps to fund the objectives of the work plan, which focus on four main tasks: technical projects, research and development, outreach and education, and program administration. There is a total of 18 objectives to account for the 1414 hours of dedicated staff time by the Tri-County Environmental Planner. These objectives reflect the technical and outreach priorities of members while providing a representation of the administrative needs and support needed to run the Groundwater Management Board. A new work plan and budget will be created each year, leading up to the new fiscal year, to provide a guiding document on what activities will be accomplished for the Board and for members to bring back to their communities to use in their continued efforts to protect and manage groundwater resources. To learn more about the activities and initiatives currently focused on by GMB, refer to this year’s work plan:

FY 2026 Work Plan

FY 2025 Work Plan FY 2024 Work Plan

FY 2023 Work Plan

FY 2022 Work Plan

Published in 1982, the Lansing Metropolitan Area Groundwater Management Plan was created after groundwater drawdown concerns with both municipal and private wells occurred across the region. This plan studied the geographic area of Watertown, DeWitt, Bath, Delta, Lansing, Meridian, Windsor, Delhi, and Alaiedon townships to define what the nature and extent of the drawdown impacts were and what they would be in the future, assess future community water supplies, and protect the region’s groundwater aquifer from contamination. Since publication, this plan has been used as the guiding document for the Groundwater Management Board to coordinate and optimizing management of the groundwater resources in the metropolitan area. It consists of six main recommendations which include:

• Coordination with other agency groundwater programs

• Assess groundwater quality in the Lansing Metropolitan Area

• Perform an on-going assessment of groundwater supply

• Identify future sources of water

• Coordinate groundwater management activities with other management programs

• Implement a water conservation/education program designed to instruct GMB members, community officials, and citizens on the basic concepts of groundwater management

To better understand our groundwater system, the Ingham County Health Department participated in the Southwest Michigan Groundwater and Monitoring Program, better known as the Michigan Groundwater Survey (MGS). This was a project started in 1983 by Western Michigan University with financial support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. As one of 18 communities in Michigan to participate in MGS, the county sampled over 300 wells and analyzed the groundwater quality of all 16 of its townships. This original survey, published as the "Report on the Aquifer of Ingham County," identified local concerns associated with activities - such as road salting - and levels of arsenic, nitrate, boron, and fluoride above drinking water standards and recommendations. The identification of these issues has been used by Ingham County to initiate programs to help protect our groundwater resources.

At the time the MGS was conducted, the plan was to survey groundwater quality every 10 to 20 years to monitor any general changes; however, the original wells included in the MGS program have not been resampled since the 1983 study was completed in 1987. Recently, there has been interest in resampling these wells to compare current results with past analysis and to monitor overall groundwater quality across the entire tri-county region of Clinton, Eaton, and Ingham counties through a groundwater surveying initiative.

Photo courtesy of Garry Rowe.

Since the early 2000s, Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s Environmental Permits Checklist has been tailored to accommodate the specific needs of GMB communities and local stakeholders. This Environmental Permits Checklist customized for the tri-county region integrates contact information for representatives of relevant State of Michigan departments and each division serving jurisdictions within Clinton, Eaton, and Ingham counties.

As of early 2023, the latest version of the Checklist has been released for use by staff of GMB members and regional partners for incorporation into their day-to-day activities, such as site plan reviews and wellhead protection planning. This tool is targeted toward community planners, local sustainability staff, environmental compliance specialists, emergency coordinators, and many more.

To help users further understand the application of the checklist, an appendix has been developed to provide background on the different types of permits discussed in the checklist and additional contact information.

Environmental Permits Checklist

Environmental Permits Checklist Appendix

Created in 2015, the Tri-County Water Policies and Programs Guide serves as an informational tool and guidance document for decision makers and residents of Clinton, Eaton and Ingham counties. Developed by bringing together experts within the community, this document provides information, program initiatives, and regulatory actions on groundwater, drinking water, land use, surface water, and wastewater for the urban and rural areas of the tri-county region. It identifies local water protection activities, policy and programming gaps, best management practices, opportunities for complementary activities, and recommendations and plans for long term sustainability that were established and agreed to by the organizations involved at the time of its creation.

With the passing of the 2017-2018 state budget, the Michigan State Capitol Commission began a project to upgrade the capitol building's infrastructure with a geothermal heating and cooling system. Due to the increased risks to groundwater resources, the members of the Groundwater Management Board (GMB) worked together to pen a letter of recommendations to the Michigan State Capitol Commission.

As a result, many of the recommendations made by the GMB were taken into consideration for the project and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (now known as the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, or EGLE) appointed the GMB’s Geothermal Working Group as a stakeholder team to draft legislation on the matter.

Created in 2011, the Wellhead and Groundwater Protection Audit Tool was developed to provide any community seeking guidance on their wellhead and groundwater protection strategies with a specific tool for evaluation. The auditing tool first examines a community's existing wellhead protection planning and implementation activities through an analysis of community documents, such as master plans, zoning ordinances, site plan review processes, and any other relevant plans or reports. This allows auditors to evaluate four important aspects of wellhead protection planning:

1. the identification of goals and objectives for improving or maintaining groundwater quality;

2. the identification of specific strategies that will allow the community to meet their stated goals and objectives;

3. an examination of ordinances/policy pertaining to groundwater protections; and

4. an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to aid in the identification of barriers and to gauge room for improvement.

Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) Wellhead Protection Program assists local communities that depend on groundwater for their municipal drinking water supply systems by offering information and funding to help protect their water at its source.

Through their Source Water Protection Grants, any element of a community's wellhead protection plan or activities may be eligible for funding. Both Tri-County and GMB have an important role in the application process for communities seeking this funding. Each year a portion of dues paid by GMB members is put toward the required project funding match, the GMB works with Tri-County as a clearinghouse to help administer the grant, and GMB assists in the completion or oversight of the grant project. Some projects created under this grant include:

• Groundwater protection training series for local planners, engineers, and decision makers

• Gap analysis studies on best management practices and long-term sustainability

• Developing sources of readily-available water and environmental data for community access

• Social media campaigns on groundwater education

• A series of groundwater education presentations for policy and decision makers

• Movie advertisements for local education on the value of groundwater

• A permanent local groundwater display for children’s education at Impression 5

• The creation and maintenance of the Wellhead Protection Viewer

• Potential Contamination Source Inventory updates for Wellhead Protection Plans

Established in 2000, the Capital Area Groundwater Alliance (CAGA) was comprised of Greater Lansing communities involved in wellhead protection and worked toward coordinating efforts on their wellhead protection programs, outreach, and projects. One of CAGA's primary goals was to establish a recognizable entity for wellhead protection efforts across multiple communities and to formalize their relationships and activities.

CAGA served as a great educational resource for communities by creating programs like Tap into Groundwater Protection: A Training Opportunity for Lansing Area Business and the Abandoned Well Program, which focused on creating materials to educate homeowners about properly abandoning a well on their property. CAGA was awarded the Innovation Award by the Michigan Association of Regions for their approach to educating the public on groundwater issues.

Created in 1995 with the goal of teaching children the value and vulnerability of water, the Children’s Water Festival was a regular event and feature of groundwater education in the region for over 20 years.

The first festival saw over 1,000 children from schools around the tri-county area, offering attendees free entry and an interactive field trip for students to learn about the importance of our environment, water resources, and their role in protecting and conserving them. Following water festivals targeted 4th and 5th graders to better align with curriculm standards and help recruit future groundwater stewards.

Though successful, the Children's Water Festival was an immense undertaking in fundraising, planning, and coordination with schools across the state, ultimately leading to a transition toward providing children's groundwater education activities as part of the MSU Science Festival and other local water education events.

Conducted over two phases (as of 2020) the Regional Aquifer Study was led by GMB and Tri-County to determine the quality and quantity of water in the region’s aquifer system.

Conducted by the United States Geologic Survey (USGS) across nine townships, the first phase began in 1991, when USGS created a detailed computer model of the aquifer system serving the tri-county region of Clinton, Eaton, and Igham counties, and used the model to delineate wellhead protection areas. In 2002, phase two of the study used improved technology to update and refine the computer model to provide a better representation of the regional aquifer systems.

In 1990, a study led by the GMB and Tri-County investigated the feasibility of developing a regional water system. Supported by 20 communities in the region, this study examined existing water infrastructure, predicted future needs into the year 2020, and projected five scenarios under which various communities could create shared water systems, resulting in significant monetary savings and system protections. After its completion in 1993, the study received an award from the Michigan Association of Regions for outstanding intergovernmental programs and ultimately lead to the formation of the Mid-Michigan Water Authority in December 1995.

Started by an EPA Pollution Prevention Grant in 2011, the By-Product Synergy project focused on turning waste output from one company into a product stream for another company generating revenue while reducing or eliminating pollution at the source. The state-wide project included participants within a 75-mile radius around Lansing and focused on industries, such as Dow Chemical and General Motors, academic, and local governmental bodies. Through this project, connections were made to reduce the amount of aluminum chloride, chemical waste, copper waste, foil, food waste, non-chlorinated waste, and steel slag entering landfills across the region and reducing overall carbon dioxide and hazardous waste production. As an agency wide program at Tri-County Regional Planning Commission, By-Product Synergy focused on connecting the needs of one participant with the resources of another by:

• Stakeholders providing expertise, support, and marketing.

• Innovators looking at new ways to use, change, and repurpose waste products.

• Participants bringing their waste streams to the table and looking for additional inputs into the system.

Established by W.K. Kellogg in 1897, the Groundwater Education in Michigan program focused on educating citizens and community leaders on groundwater and drinking water issues and the need to protect the quality of these resources.

With the development of geographic information systems (GIS), the GMB became involved in the project in the early 1990s to educate local officials on groundwater and to highlight how GIS equipment could improve decision making processes. This coincided with the development of GEMNET, which was a computer network that allowed for the exchange of ideas and technology pertaining to groundwater in Michigan. Housed through the Groundwater Resource Center, GIS information was available on base maps, soils, zoning, toxic sites, census tracts, and land use, in addition to, an extensive physical library on periodicals, reports, brochures, guidebooks, pertinent legislation, and videos all targeted toward groundwater education and resources.

The GMB convenes many regional stakeholders who play an important role in the management and conservation of our groundwater. With the opportunity to host so many key organizations, communities, and agencies together in one place, Tri-County's meeting space serves as an excellent venue to share information and host presentations on the latest research, hot topics, and changes to regulations and procedures. The following is a list of the many knowledge sharing activities, working groups, and presentations facilitated by the GMB over the years:

• Hosted Wayne Jernberg from City of Grant Rapids to talk about Michigan’s Water and Wastewater Response Network

• Hosted Stephen Gasteyer from Michigan State University to present on assessing attitudes and perceptions concerning risks to drinking water in Michigan.

• Hosted Eric Oswald of Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy on regionalization of community water supplies.

• Hosted Sandra M. Eberts of the United States Geological Survey, on the development of a Great Lakes groundwater and surface water conceptual framework.

• Hosted Kaitlyn Kiessling of Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to present on the MiWell program

• Hosted Tim Faas to give an overview of the MI WARN Program

• Formed a working group on reviewing well abandonment, started by reviewing sanitary codes

• Hosted the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) to speak to GMB members about the Source Water Protection Grant and its future status due to increased attention on PFAS in groundwater

• Hosted Dr. Susan Masten of Michigan State University to give a presentation on lead and other groundwater contamination in Ingham County

• Hosted Dr. Kurt Guter and his two high school students, Hudson Yiu and Luke Schafer, to present the results of a Williamston High School microplastics study

• Formed the GMB Geothermal Working Group to advise on the drafting of EGLE’s statewide geothermal legislation

• Hosted Lois E. Graham, R.S., M.S.A. of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to present on Michigan’s Statewide PFAS Sampling Effort

• Hosted Mr. Tim Bowlin, Chief Financial Officer and Project Manager of the Michigan State Capitol Commission, to speak on his background and the geothermal project happening at the Michigan Capital Building

• Hosted Jared Harmon, Executive Director of Mid-Michigan Land Conservancy on Michigan’s Forests to Mi Faucets program

• Hosted Anthony Kendall, Research Assistant Professor at Michigan State University on create a new now-cast Great Lakes groundwater level product with state-of-the-art models and satellite observations

• Hosted Murat Ulasir, Asset Management Practice Leader at OHM Advisors on clickable asset management plans

• Co-signed Pariana Groundwater Discharge Permit Letter with Tri-County to EGLE

• Hosted Christe Alwin from Michigan Department of Environmental, Great Lakes, and Energy on the department’s chloride implementation plan

• Hosted Brian Steglitz of City of Ann Arbor on their efforts of optimizing PFAS removal.

For over 27 years, Tri-County and the GMB participated and were recognized as a Groundwater Guardian by the Groundwater Foundation for our efforts in groundwater protection. This was a program focused on supporting and encouraging communities and organizations to promote groundwater awareness activities and education efforts through creating a network of participants acting locally while having a global impact.