It's not just the Great Lakes. Flooding threatens inland Michigan, too

LANSING — The record-high Great Lakes water levels are highly visual. Roads are crumbling, parks are flooded and closed, beaches have disappeared and homes are falling into the water.

But the story of Michigan's high water problem doesn't end where the Great Lakes meet land. 

Inland communities, including those in mid-Michigan, are facing unprecedented conditions experts say could lead to widespread flooding. 

"We're going to see storm sewers sitting full of water," Saginaw County Public Works Commissioner Brian Wendling said at a Jan. 23 House appropriations subcommittee meeting. "We're going to see water tables as high as a foot from ground level. That means failed septic systems, that means flooded basements. I fully anticipate, to some degree, basements to collapse."

Soil acts as a sponge, soaking up water and releasing it slowly into waterways that feed into the Great Lakes. Trees and other plants slow water even more.

In Michigan, the sponge is full. Warm and wet winter weather caused the ground to fill with water when it normally would be dry, so there's little room left to absorb rain and melting snow.

"We're multiple months ahead [of schedule] in terms of how much water is actually in our rivers, in the ground," Eaton County Emergency Manager Ryan Wilkinson said. "There's just not a lot of places to put water at this point."

Wilkinson is among the water resource managers, emergency response workers and environmental experts around Michigan warning of possible flooding this year.

They pointed to three places they expect to see the most impact: communities, rivers and farms.

1: Flooded towns

Ingham County will flood this year, Drain Commissioner Patrick Lindemann warned.

A warming climate is causing increasingly wet weather in Michigan, he said. Instead of slow drizzles, precipitation is more likely to come in bursts that overwhelm the wetlands, storm sewer systems and rivers that accommodate what historically were normal amounts of water.

"The weather patterns are changing," he said. "We aren't having 10 square miles of drizzle anymore. We're having isolated storms. It could be sunshine in East Lansing and then in Lansing you can have four inches of rain in less than three hours."

"These weather patterns are causing a major problem."

A problem fueled by climate change is compounded by development, Lindemann said.

"Some of these watersheds and drainage districts we have are as high as 80% [developed]," he said. "That means when a drop of water hits the parking lot, within 10 minutes it hits the river. If it was still a hardwood forest, that drop of water would have taken four or five days to get to the river."

Increased development along rivers and lakes is a particular problem as those areas become more prone to flooding, Wilkinson said. He said outdated building codes should include more measures to protect homes and buildings from damage.

"It's a problem across the nation," he said. "We're seeing people continue to build in what we call hazard areas. It's a big thing within the emergency management realm."

2: Flooded rivers

Flooding is a key challenge climate change brings to Michigan wildlife, Department of Natural Resources adaptation specialist Chris Hoving said.

Water eventually finds a stream, so a big gush of it means faster river flows, churned-up sediment, poor water quality and damaged ecosystems.

Ecologically important species like freshwater mussels, salamanders and frogs are finicky about water quality and speed.

"This change in the flow regime in our streams is a big deal for them," Hoving said. "A lot of our rare fish are really small minnows. They don't have the strength of a big bull trout to go against a heavy current. They need calmer water, but still moving water."

3: Flooded farms

If warnings about spring flooding come true, Michigan farmers are in for another challenging year.

It's still too early to predict spring planting conditions, said Ricardo Costa, Michigan State University Extension field crops educator for southeast Michigan.

"If we keep having rainfalls by the time we start planting of course you're going to have a high chance of a flood," he said. "The question is, are we going to have that rainfall like we had last year? That's one thing we don't know as of right now."

Farmers start planting field crops like wheat, corn and soybeans in April or May, Costa said. Last year, flooding delayed planting for many Michigan farmers until June or July. Farmers had a shorter window to grow crops, which can lead to lower yields.

Indeed, 2019 corn and soybean harvest figures were well below average, according to USDA figures. 

More:Soggy spring brings puddles of trouble for Lansing-area corn, soybean farmers

Contact Carol Thompson at (517) 377-1018 or ckthompson@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @thompsoncarolk.