In early 2025, Flow and students from the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) graduate program teamed up for a 16-month initiative to examine Michigan’s groundwater management and propose a statewide strategy to ensure long-term, sustainable groundwater governance.
Protecting and managing groundwater is particularly complex given the lack of comprehensive data, fragmented state authority governing water quality versus quantity, unclear and differing policies managing water quantity versus water quality, and the lack of public education and knowledge. Over the last five years, an increasing number of state agencies, scientific experts, philanthropy, and nonprofits have raised awareness of this understudied, underfunded, and underappreciated resource that is integral to the health and well-being of all Great Lakes waters.
Building on these previous groundwater reports and assessments, Flow, in partnership with the University of Michigan’s SEAS, will develop a strategy for groundwater reform that addresses quantity, quality, and justice challenges; and offers regulatory, statutory, and institutional structural recommendations.
Report fact sheets.
Meet the graduate students.
We asked the SEAS graduate students to share their perspectives about this groundwater project. Read their responses to all things groundwater!
Paige Lund
Lillian Wege
Kelsey Campana
Emma Welsh
With gratitude to our supporters.
Flow Water Advocates’ work on this report was made possible through the generous
support of The Michael Cameron Dempsey Fund, The HP Foundation, The Frey
Foundation, and The Oleson Foundation, whose investments directly funded this
partnership. Flow Water Advocates is also deeply grateful to the additional funders whose support of our broader groundwater program helped sustain the body of work that informed this project.
