MI Water Stewardship Program

04/30/2026

Protect Our Water This Spring

As the seasons change, small actions at home can make a big difference for our local waterways. Thanks to the Greater Lansing Regional Committee for Stormwater Management (GLRC) for sharing these helpful tips!

✔️ Clean – Clear leaves and debris from catch basins, drains, gutters, and downspouts to help prevent flooding.
🚗 Wash Wisely – Use a commercial car wash where wastewater is treated. Washing at home can send soap, oil, and grease straight into storm drains.
♻️ Recycle – Safely dispose of leftover household chemicals at your county’s hazardous waste collection events, and consider switching to environmentally friendly Safer Choice products.
🏡 Inspect – Check your septic system every three years and pump as needed. Make sure sump pumps are working and consider installing a water alarm.
🌼 Apply Safely – Use fertilizers sparingly or choose eco-friendly options. Excess nutrients can lead to harmful algae blooms in our lakes and streams.
🐾 Scoop – Always pick up pet waste. It contains bacteria that can harm both people and aquatic life.

Together, these small steps add up to cleaner water and a healthier community.

Learn more at: www.mywatersheds.org

03/19/2026

A quick 10-minute check could save gallons of water (and money). This Fix a Leak Week, take a moment to find and fix household leaks.

Find other helpful resources for water conservation in your home at https://miwaterstewardship.org/in-your-home/

💧🤫 Drip… drip… drip… Some leaks—like toilet leaks—are sneaky, silent, and costly. 💸
Even a small drip can waste gallons of water without you noticing.

This , take 10 minutes to check your home:

💧 Inspect faucets, pipes, and toilets

💧 Test your toilet with food coloring—see color in the bowl? That’s a leak!

💧 Fix leaks by tightening connections or swapping worn parts

At-home checklist: https://tinyurl.com/yvwd4c2u

More tips and resources: Michigan.gov/FixALeakWeek

03/17/2026

New data centers are rapidly expanding across the Great Lakes region, and many communities are being asked to make decisions about them with limited information. To help residents better understand the potential impacts, the Alliance for the Great Lakes has released a new resource: “A Regional Playbook for Managing Data Center Impacts in the Great Lakes.”

This guide is designed for residents, community groups, and local leaders who want clear, accessible information about how data centers use water and energy, and what that could mean for local communities and the Great Lakes.

For Michigan residents in particular, the playbook provides practical tools to help communities engage in local decision-making, including:
▪A Community Checklist for Evaluating Data Center Impacts
▪A Checklist of Community and Environmental Benefits
▪Questions to Ask at Public Meetings

These resources can help communities assess issues such as increased water and energy demand, potential wastewater pollution, impacts on local infrastructure, and rising utility costs. The playbook also highlights challenges around transparency, as many data center developers use non-disclosure agreements that can limit public access to key information about water and energy use.

The playbook does not take a position on whether a specific data center project is “good” or “bad.” Instead, it helps communities ask informed questions and advocate for development that protects water resources, ecosystems, and community well-being.

Learn more and download the playbook:
https://greatlakes.org/resources/data-center-playbook/

Join the upcoming webinar on March 24 from 1-2 pm to hear from experts and ask questions about the guide:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qT4qwZd5T7WE7xmd-nl3lw #/registration

This is an important conversation for communities across Michigan and the Great Lakes region as data center development continues to grow. Informed residents play a critical role in ensuring these projects protect our shared water resources.

Water-intensive data center development is rapidly growing across the Great Lakes region. To help make sense of the impacts, we released this guide for residents, concerned citizens, grassroots organizations, and […]

03/16/2026

Hands-on learning is one of the best ways to help students understand and care for Michigan’s incredible freshwater resources. These new grant opportunities through EGLE help to empower the next generation of Great Lakes stewards.

Learn more: https://www.michigan.gov/egle/newsroom/press-releases/2026/03/02/new-funds-will-support-students-and-school-freshwater-projects-in-michigan

💧 New state grants are now open to help Michigan schools expand freshwater literacy and hands-on STEM learning! 🌊🔬

Through the From Students to Stewards initiative, schools can apply for funding to support:

• Student-led water stewardship projects

• Field trips to rivers, lakes, and Great Lakes shorelines

• Freshwater field experiences using place-based, problem-based, and project-based learning

These real-world opportunities help students connect classroom lessons to Michigan’s water resources while building skills for future STEM careers.

Information webinar — March 18: https://tinyurl.com/mwmst3v7

Program details and application: https://tinyurl.com/mr2u6a65

03/12/2026

💧 Calling all innovators, students, and water advocates!💧

Applications are now open for the AquaHacking Binational 2026 Challenge, a free, 7-month innovation program bringing together students, researchers, and young professionals from the U.S. and Canada to develop solutions to critical water challenges in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence region.

Participants work in teams to turn bold ideas into real-world water solutions. Along the way, teams receive mentorship, training, and technical support to help develop technologies and approaches that improve water quality, strengthen community resilience, and support a sustainable blue economy.

Finalist teams will pitch their ideas for a chance to win seed funding and launch their solutions through leading startup incubators.

The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence provide drinking water for more than 110 million people and support a regional economy worth over $9 trillion, making innovation and collaboration essential to protecting this shared freshwater resource.

🗓 Registration deadline: April 6, 2026
🔗 Learn more and apply: https://aquaaction.org/en/our-programs/aquahacking-challenge/aquahacking-binational-2026

Whether you are an engineer, designer, scientist, storyteller, or community problem-solver, this program is open to anyone ready to help shape the future of freshwater.

🌊 It’s official! We just launched our 2026 AquaHacking Binational Great Lakes and St. Lawrence program! This is the BIGGEST AquaHacking program we have ev...

03/04/2026

Michigan is the only state in the nation without a uniform septic code, and the consequences are significant. Failing septic systems release billions of gallons of untreated sewage each year into groundwater, lakes, and streams, contaminating drinking water and threatening public health across the state.

Join FLOW Water Advocates on March 6, 2026, for an important webinar on the urgent need and historic opportunity to establish a statewide septic code in Michigan.

The panel features:
• Senator Sam Singh: State Senator working to advance statewide septic reform legislation
• Megan Tinsley: Michigan Environmental Council, policy expert on water and environmental protections
• Dan Thorell: Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department, providing a local public health perspective on septic oversight
• Anthony Kendall: Michigan State University, sharing research on septic systems and groundwater impacts

This discussion will explore the scope of septic system failures in Michigan, the impacts on groundwater and surface waters, what a statewide code could mean for communities, and how residents can support meaningful policy change.

Protecting Michigan’s water requires consistent standards and shared responsibility. Register today to be part of the conversation.

Register for the webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lgRtAeN3ST2nk_ueKl7sfA #/registration

Learn more about how failing septic systems impact Michigan’s water quality: https://miwaterstewardship.org/septic-systems/

02/24/2026

📚Announcing the Great Lakes, Great Read 2026 Selections! 📚

In partnership with library associations, education groups, and Sea Grant programs across the Great Lakes region, the Library of the Great Lakes is excited to announce the 2026 titles for Great Lakes, Great Read.

Each year, libraries, schools, and community groups throughout the Great Lakes region read and discuss the same books, connecting over stories that celebrate our waters, history, and people.

📖 2026 Selections

Picture Book Selection
Sport – Ship Dog of the Great Lakes by Pamela Cameron
The true story of a puppy rescued during a storm by a sailor aboard a Great Lakes lighthouse tender. With beautiful illustrations, this heartwarming tale introduces young readers to Sport and the crews who kept the lights shining and ships safe on Lake Michigan.

Middle Grade Selection
Saving Our Sturgeon: Protecting Wisconsin’s Ancient Fish by Rebecca Hogue Wojahn
Meet one of the Great Lakes’ most fascinating and ancient fish. This engaging and richly illustrated book highlights the collaborative efforts of children, Indigenous communities, scientists, and government agencies who helped restore this threatened species.

Adult Selection
The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon
A New York Times bestseller and the definitive account of America’s most haunting maritime disaster. Through more than 100 interviews, Bacon brings to life the history of Great Lakes shipping and the sailors and families connected to the legendary SS Edmund Fitzgerald.

🔎 Visit www.greatlakesgreatread.org for author details, downloadable toolkits, and upcoming webinar announcements with each author.

02/06/2026

The FishPass project in Traverse City is an innovative approach to reconnecting the Boardman River to Lake Michigan while protecting the river from invasive species.

FishPass is designed as a selective fish passage system that replaces a traditional dam with a series of channels that function like a controlled obstacle course. Instead of fully blocking fish movement, the system uses differences in water flow, depth, velocity, lighting, and other cues to sort fish by species. Native and desirable fish such as lake sturgeon and walleye are guided upstream to access historic spawning habitat, while invasive species like sea lamprey and other unwanted fish are redirected or blocked.

The system also incorporates advanced monitoring tools, including cameras and sensors, to track fish movement in real time. This allows researchers to continually refine how the channels function and improve selective passage over time.

FishPass represents a major shift in how we think about river restoration. It balances the goal of removing barriers and restoring natural connectivity with the need to prevent the spread of invasive species that threaten Great Lakes ecosystems. If successful, this project could serve as a model for rivers across the region and beyond.

Watch the video to learn how this fish obstacle course works and why it matters for the future of the Boardman River and the Great Lakes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdUjlUjajuI

In Traverse City, Michigan, a fish obstacle course is keeping unwanted species out of a river. As dams come down around the world, native fish are returning ...

02/03/2026

The Great Lakes hold the largest supply of surface freshwater in the world, but that does not make them limitless.

As proposals for new data centers accelerate across the Great Lakes region, an important question deserves more attention: Are we prepared for the growing water demands of this rapidly expanding industry?

Hyperscale data centers that support cloud computing and artificial intelligence can use between 1 and 5 million gallons of water per day, largely for cooling. Much of this water is consumed through evaporation and is not returned to the watershed. To put this into perspective, a single data center using 1 million gallons per day can consume as much water in a year as roughly 12,000 people.

While the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact protects our water from being diverted outside the region, it places responsibility on states to manage large water uses within the Basin. That makes careful planning, transparency, and conservation essential as water-intensive industries expand locally.

There are clear steps that can reduce the impact of data centers on Great Lakes water supplies:
• Require early disclosure of a facility’s full water footprint, including both cooling water and water used indirectly through electricity generation
• Mandate accurate tracking and public reporting of water use and consumptive losses
• Prioritize water-efficient cooling technologies and limit reliance on evaporative cooling where possible
• Encourage the use of non-potable or reclaimed water and closed-loop recirculation systems
• Evaluate groundwater impacts at the watershed level, especially where residents and farmers rely on private wells
• Factor water availability and climate change projections into economic development incentives and siting decisions

Climate change is already altering precipitation patterns and groundwater recharge across the Great Lakes region. At the same time, only about one percent of Great Lakes water is naturally renewed each year. These realities mean that even in a water-rich region, unchecked growth in high-volume water users can strain local supplies and ecosystems.

Thoughtful guidelines and stronger water management policies can allow innovation and economic development to move forward without compromising the Great Lakes. Protecting this shared freshwater resource today is essential to sustaining our communities, economies, and ecosystems for generations to come.

As data centers proliferate across the Great Lakes, driven by AI’s soaring demands, communities face a dual reality: economic growth and environmental challenges.

01/26/2026

It’s Winter Salt Week 2026!

From January 26–30, 2026, we’re joining communities across the country to raise awareness about the impact of salt pollution on our freshwater lakes, streams, infrastructure, and drinking water. Too much road salt may help melt snow, but it causes environmental challenges that affect wildlife, public health, and the long-term health of freshwater ecosystems.

📅 Winter Salt Week Livestream Schedule:
🔹 Mon, Jan 26 – Freshwater Salinization: Causes, Consequences, and Trends @ 1:30 pm ET
🔹 Tue, Jan 27 – Salt Wise Stories @ 1:30 pm ET
🔹 Wed, Jan 28 – Smart Salting Contracts @ 1:30 pm ET
🔹 Thu, Jan 29 – Engineering Solutions @ 1:30 pm ET
🔹 Fri, Jan 30 – Advocating for Change @ 12:00 pm ET
🔹 Fri, Jan 30 – Salt Monitoring 101 @ 1:00 pm ET

🔗 Learn more & register: https://wintersaltweek.org/