Ground-water contamination and legal controls in Michigan

Morris Deutsch

doi:10.3133/wsp1691

Home/Archive/USGS

USGS · wsp1691

Ground-water contamination and legal controls in Michigan

Morris Deutsch

View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The great importance of the fresh ground-water resources of Michigan is evident because 90 percent of the rural and about 70 percent of the total population of the State exclusive of the Detroit metropolitan area are supplied from underground sources. The water-supply and public-health problems that have been caused by some cases of ground-water contamination in the State illustrate the necessity of protecting this vital resource. Manmade and natural contaminants, including many types of chemical and organic matter, have entered many of the numerous aquifers of the State. Aquifers have been contaminated by waste-laden liquids percolating from the surface or from the zone of aeration and by direct injection to the aquifer itself. Industrial and domestic wastes, septic tanks, leaking sewers, flood waters or other poor quality surface waters, mine waters, solids stored or spread at the surface, and even airborne wastes all have been sources of ground-water contamination in Michigan. In addition, naturally occurring saline waters have been induced into other aquifers by overpumping or unrestricted flow from artesian wells, possibly by dewatering operations, and by the deepening of surface stream channels. Vertical migration of saline waters through open holes from formations underlying various important aquifers also has spoiled some of the fresh ground waters in the State. In spite of the contamination that has occurred, however, the total amount of ground water that has been spoiled is only a small part of the total resource. Neither is the contamination so widespread as that of the surface streams of Michigan. Overall legal authority to control most types of ground-water contamination in the State has been assigned by the Michigan Legislature to the Water Resources Commission, although the Department of Conservation and the Health Department also exercise important water-pollution control functions. The Michigan Supreme Court, in an important case upholding the power of the Water Resources Commission to control pollution of ground water, in effect has introduced the doctrine of reasonable use into the law of the State. Excluding controls administered by the Department of Conservation on activities of the oil and gas industry, however, legal controls have not been used abate intrusion of natural saline waters into fresh-water aquifers in response to pumping and other manmade changes in the hydrologic regimen.

Explore related subjects

Water Supply Paper Report

Source-reported bounding extent: 41.696089° to 48.190975° latitude; -90.41562° to -82.412965° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

Morris Deutsch. 1963. Ground-water contamination and legal controls in Michigan. https://doi.org/10.3133/wsp1691

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related USGS reports

USGS2004

Basic ground-water hydrology

Ground water is one of the Nation's most valuable natural resources. It is the source of about 40 percent of the water used for all purposes exclusive of hydropower generation and electric powerplant cooling. Surprisingly, for a resource that is so widely used and so important to the health and to the economy of the country, the occurrence of ground water is not only poorly understood but is also, in fact, the subject of many widespread misconceptions. Common misconceptions include the belief that ground water occurs in underground rivers resembling surface streams whose presence can be detected by certain individuals. These misconceptions and others have hampered the development and conservation of ground water and have adversely affected the protection of its quality. In order for the Nation to receive maximum benefit from its ground-water resource, it is essential that everyone, from the rural homeowner to managers of industrial and municipal water supplies to heads of Federal and State water-regulatory agencies, become more knowledgeable about the occurrence, development, and protection of ground water. This report has been prepared to help meet the needs of these groups, as well as the needs of hydrologists, well drillers, and others engaged in the study and development of ground-water supplies. It consists of 45 sections on the basic elements of ground-water hydrology, arranged in order from the most basic aspects of the subject through a discussion of the methods used to determine the yield of aquifers to a discussion of common problems encountered in the operation of ground-water supplies. Each section consists of a brief text and one or more drawings or maps that illustrate the main points covered in the text. Because the text is, in effect, an expanded discussion of the illustrations, most of the illustrations are not captioned. However, where more than one drawing is included in a section, each drawing is assigned a number, given in parentheses, and these numbers are inserted at places in the text where the reader should refer to the drawing. In accordance with U.S. Geological Survey policy to encourage the use of metric units, these units are used in most sections. In the sections dealing with the analysis of aquifer (pumping) test data, equations are given in both consistent units and in the inconsistent inch-pound units still in relatively common use among ground-water hydrologists and well drillers. As an aid to those who are not familiar with metric units and with the conversion of ground-water hydraulic units from inch-pound units to metric units, conversion tables are given on the inside back cover. Definitions of ground-water terms are given where the terms are first introduced. Because some of these terms will be new to many readers, abbreviated definitions are also given on the inside front cover for convenient reference by those who wish to review the definitions from time to time as they read the text. Finally, for those who need to review some of the simple mathematical operations that are used in ground-water hydrology, a section on numbers, equations, and conversions is included at the end of the text.

Water Supply Paper↗

USGS2002

Use of stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur to identify sources of nitrogen in surface waters in the Lower Susquehanna River Basin, Pennsylvania

Samples of nitrogen-source material, soil, and water were collected from several small, primarily single-source subbasins in the Lower Susquehanna River Basin during 1988–90 to determine the feasibility of using measurements of stable isotope ratios of carbon ( 13 C), nitrogen ( 15 N), and sulfur ( 34 S) to identify sources of nitrogen (N) in stream water. Chemical and isotopic compositions were measured for six N-source types consisting of rain water, forest leaf litter, synthetic fertilizer, farm-animal manure, municipal-sewage effluent and sludge, and septictank effluent and sludge. Compositions of associated, nearby samples of topsoil, subsoil, runoff water, and stream water were measured to evaluate changes in compositions of transported N-containing materials near the N source. Animal manure, human waste (sewage plus septic), and forest-leaf litter can be distinguished on the basis of 13 C; however, most N-sources cannot be distinguished on the basis of 15 N and 34 S, owing to wide ranges and overlap of compositions among different N-source types. Although values of 15 N for soil and runoff-water samples are qualitatively similar to those of the applied N source, values of 13 C and 34 S for runoff-water and stream-water samples appear to reflect the compositions of relatively large reservoirs of the elements in soil organic matter and minerals, respectively, and not the composition of the applied N source. The ratio of organic carbon to total nitrogen (C-org:N), combined with 13 C, is useful for distinguishing agricultural soils, which have characteristically high 13 C and low C-org:N, from forested soils. The C-org:N values of suspended particulates in runoff or stream waters generally are lower than those of nearby soils, however, and indicate that chemical transformations and resultant isotopic fractionation can be important controls on the compositions of N-containing compounds in the soil and water. In aqueous samples including surface water and liquid N-sources, isotopic ratios commonly differ between coexisting dissolved fractions of NO 3- N and NH 3- N and between dissolved and particulate fractions of N or S, probably because of isotopic fractionation during transport or N-source processing. Isotopic measurements provide qualitative information about important reactions that can affect N concentrations in surface waters. However, mass-balance computations generally are not sufficiently accurate to estimate the proportions of multiple sources contributing to the N load in the streams studied because of (1) variations in source chemical and isotopic compositions and (2) nonconservative behavior and fractionation during transport over short distances (hundreds of meters). Uncertainties in mass-balance computations are complicated by the propagation of errors associated with measurements of discharge, chemical concentrations,and isotopic compositions of relatively dilute, small streams.

Pennsylvania↗

USGS2001

Validation of a numerical modeling method for simulating rainfall-runoff relations for headwater basins in western King and Snohomish Counties, Washington

The validity of a previously determined numerical modeling method was assessed. Numerical models for 11 drainage basins were constructed with the Hydrologic Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF) with parameter values that were generalized for the physiographic region. Large and recurrent simulation errors were initially identified, but three systematic modifications of the models corrected those errors for 10 out of the 11 basins. The validity of the numerical modeling method for simulating rainfall-runoff relations in the study area, as modified during this investigation, was not rejected, but observed streamflow data were needed to apply the method.

Water Supply Paper↗