Integrated watershed management in Michigan: Challenges and proposed solutions

Michigan's current water management system is highly decentralized and based more on jurisdictional than watershed boundaries. There is both environmental and economic justification to examine alternate water resource management approaches given the current system's potential for inefficiency and redundancy. Our research addresses a central question: How might an integrated watershed governance system be applied in Michigan, where jurisdictional authority and political will are fragmented both horizontally across agencies and vertically across scales? We identify the key challenges facing Michigan's current approach to managing water resources and then describe two alternatives, referred to as Integrated Watershed Commissions (IWCs), which would coordinate water resource management and decision making on a watershed basis. The first alternative represents a relatively radical departure from the state's current structure, an “unconstrained” vision for comprehensive watershed management, which is not bound by the state's present political and management limitations. The second alternative, a more conservative or “constrained” vision for watershed coordination, operates primarily within Michigan's existing governance structures, and therefore includes mostly incremental change. For each alternative, we propose watershed boundaries and management structures, and discuss possible benefits and caveats. We also identify plausible next steps that can be taken in the near future, short of IWC implementation, that may catalyze water management reform and enhance coordination and collaboration in managing water resources in Michigan.