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Michigan State University
215 Farrall Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: 517-355-4720
Fax: 517-432-2892
MSU | Contact Us | Site
The Michigan Groundwater Inventory and Mapping Project
By: Steve Miller, BAE
Dave Lusch, RSGIS
Pam Hunt, IWRIn response to growing concerns about groundwater use conflicts, in 2003 Michigan Public Act 148 of 2003 was enacted. The act required the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to create a “groundwater inventory and map” that includes eight specific map components, a general requirement for a groundwater inventory, and a directive to make the map and inventory available to the public. DEQ established a collaborative research team involving groundwater and mapping experts from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Michigan State University (MSU). The project team designed an interactive web site to make the mandated products available to the public to aid in understanding and evaluating the groundwater resources in Michigan .
The interactive web site’s home page (http://gwmap.rsgis.msu.edu) links to the following components for the Groundwater Mapping Project.
- Interactive Map Viewer - access the spatial map layers as well as query databases. The mandated map components are:
- Location and water yielding capabilities of aquifers in the state - glacial yield, glacial transmissivity, glacial draw down, bedrock yield, bedrock transmissivity, and bedrock draw down
- Aquifer recharge rates in the state
- Base flow of rivers and streams in the state
- Water levels of groundwater in the state
- Surface waters, including designated trout lakes and streams, and groundwater dependent natural resources that are identified on the natural features inventory
- Location and pumping capacity of specific facilities
- Aggregate agricultural water use and consumptive use, by township
- Conflict areas in the state
- Supplemental maps: Glacial Landsystems, Wells Summary database, Wells-Complete database, Wells-Hydrologic Properties database
Additional map layers, including political boundaries, roads, aerial photos, topography, satellite imagery, land use, environmental sites, and many more are available.
- Groundwater Information Database - access publications (over 220 articles are digitally scanned) and a bibliography (over 480 groundwater relevant citations)
- Project Reports - the Executive Summary contains a synopsis of the statewide conditions for each of the map components and inventory
- Web Resources - links to primers on groundwater and water resources
- Documents - online documents concerning water resources
- Online tutorials - for the Interactive Map Viewer and Groundwater Information Database
Who can use this site and why?
Anyone with internet access can make use of this interactive web site. The Michigan Groundwater Mapping Project web site is targeted for a wide audience, for example, planners, watershed groups, policy makers, scientists, educators and citizens. This site can be utilized to investigate and evaluate areas of interest regarding the groundwater resources of Michigan.What kind of questions can be answered by the Michigan Groundwater Inventory and Mapping Project web site?
- How abundant is groundwater in the glacial (answer provided) and bedrock deposits?
- What is the probability that a high capacity well will adversely impact a small capacity well in the glacial deposits?
- Where and what type of water wells exist in my vicinity?
- Where are the groundwater dependent features, for example, trout streams and lakes, and Michigan Natural Features Inventory identified wetlands, located?
- What type of water use is in my area and how much groundwater is being withdrawn?
- What are the hydrogeologic characteristics of my county or watershed?
- Are there any publications with water quality data for groundwater in my area?
How can I obtain components of the inventory and map products?
The inventory and map products are available to end-users in three ways:
- Web-based mapping site hosted by MSU (gwmap.rsgis.msu.edu). The digital data and publications are available for download from this site.
- The digital data is available for download through the State of Michigan, Center for Geographic Information (www.michigan.gov/cgi) for use in a GIS mapping software.
- Digital data provided on compact disc for use with the Map Image Viewer software, an easy-to-use GIS software package for viewing and analyzing spatial data. MSU provides this mechanism. There is a charge for this service for users other than local health departments and the DEQ.
Several regions of minimal yield in the glacial deposits are obvious, <10 gallons per minute (gpm), most notably in the areas northwest, south, and southeast of Saginaw Bay, the tip of the “thumb”, and southeastern most Lower Michigan. Many areas in Delta and Menominee counties in the Upper Peninsula also exhibit poor yields. Note that in these areas, some water wells in glacial deposits can yield sufficient water. Local-scale heterogeneity (lithologic variations within 10-1000 meters) is very difficult to quantify and display on a statewide map. As such, site-specific investigation is always needed when planning high-capacity groundwater withdrawals.
High capacity wells are generally possible throughout much of Lower Michigan (excluding the areas shown in red and orange). Zones of very high yield potential are located in southwestern and south-central Lower Michigan, in the core of the “thumb” (Oakland, Lapeer and southeastern Tuscola counties), in the Houghton-Higgins lakes district of northern Lower Michigan and across the “tip of the mitt.”
Note: 70 gallons per minute yield level is the current definition of a high capacity well and 10-15 gpm is the industry standard minimum well yield for a residential home.
Note: Yield is defined as the pump9ing rate necessary to produce an estimated 50% decrease in water level at a well, for the used thickness of the glacial deposits as derived from Wellogic well records.
This full extent view is primarily useful to observe the gross, statewide patterns and then navigating to a zoomed view.
Zooming in makes the 1 km2 grid cells of this map visible and the heterogeneous areas become more obvious. At this and larger presentation scales, the water well point file can be displayed (map layer, "Wells Summary DB) and queried for well data derived from the Wellogic database, as the Wells Summary table shows below.
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