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They absolutely are pumping it out of an aquifer. So are many Michiganders, like myself. Both for private homes and many, many cities, the normal water source

They absolutely are pumping it out of an aquifer. So are many Michiganders, like myself. Both for private homes and many, many cities, the normal water source is a well. Fresh water is abundant on the surface, yes, but it's much cheaper (and tastier) to pump water that's been purified by long filtration through the ground than to pull it from a lake or river and process it. This process is sustainable within the state. But even if you include all the vast reserves of surface water into consideration, the ecosystem can't sustain irrigating the southwest. We have plenty of lovely farms up here; stop trying to grow crops where they don't belong!

tptacek 9y ago
They are pumping it out of an aquifer, but that aquifer is huge --- about the size of Lake Michigan itself. The first source I found on Google, an MSU presentation, says that the St. Clair River drains 80x the entire groundwater withdrawal of the entire Great Lakes region, and of that withdrawal only 5% is consumed rather than returned to the ground. 5% of 1/80th of a single river's discharge, for the entire region. I think the parent commenter has the better argument. From what I can tell, the plastic is a bigger concern here than the water.