ALLENDALE, Mich. — Sandy Garcia has lived in the same home on Pierce Street her entire life. In that time, she’s seen her hometown grow.
“If you build it, they will come,” she said.
Allendale Charter Township has boomed from around 8,000 residents in 1990 to nearly 27,000 in 2018. But with that growth, has come a problem.
“I don’t think these townships have been prepared to give the people building the access to sustainable healthy water. I just don’t think the water here is healthy to drink anymore,” she said.
Garcia's family had been drawing their water from a well, like many others in this rural area do. They started noticing discolored water that gave off a strange odor.
“There was like a scum film around everything even though I would clean everything, you would turn the water on once and it would have a film on it. So we actually stopped drinking the well water two years ago,” Garcia said, explaining that the family opted for bottled water instead.
But the problems didn’t stop there. The lack of water pressure over time also proved to be a burden.
“What happens is you turn your water on and you’ll brush your teeth or flush a toilet. You don’t have water for the next 10 hours. And then just one day it doesn’t come back,” she said.
A look at the Allendale Informed Facebook group shows Garcia is not alone.
“Woke to no water this morning,” one person wrote.
“My daughter’s well went dry on Saturday and they were told a lot of wells in Allendale-Hudsonville area have went bad in the last couple of weeks,” another person posted.
The problem has been particularly bad lately because of an abnormally dry summer, but it’s been festering for years. Ottawa County homeowners who depend on wells get their water from the Marshall Sandstone Formation, which sits under thick layers of clay that make it difficult to replenish the water supply.
“We’re essentially pumping more water out of that system than can be recharged,” said Paul Sachs, who serves as Ottawa County’s Director of Planning and Performance Improvement.
“We’re using too much water. And it’s emphasized and highlighted when we have these drought conditions.”
Garcia recently had her home’s water switched to a municipal source and she said it’s made an incredible difference in terms of water pressure and water quality. It was a quick, six-hour job. But a municipal hook up isn’t available for everyone and the expense is something Garcia says her family had to save up for.
“It is several thousands of dollars. You do have to pay your plumber up front. There is a fee for the township to hook up,” she said.
Another option for people who lose water or pressure is to have a drilling company lower their pumps. But as you go deeper, into the sodium chloride-rich formation, your water quality will drop and it will become less healthy.
“With salt, it corrodes plumbing. It burns crops. It tastes salty and in addition, those folks that may be susceptible to high blood pressure, continued consumption of elevated chloride levels in their water can potentially have some health impacts too,” Sachs said.
In early 2019, Allendale Township changed their zoning ordinance to require new platted developments to connect municipal water. Olive and Robinson townships are also taking steps to keep the problem from getting worse. The county is working to monitor groundwater levels that will help inform their decisions in the future. They’re also trying to educate homeowners about the problem.
“When I present what our challenge is, our water availability into the future, there’s a lot of jaws that drop and they’re baffled how this could be happening,” Sachs said.
As we get into fall and winter, Sachs expects the demand for water will go down because people will not be watering their lawns and gardens. But he wants people to keep water conservation in mind, especially during periods of drought.
“As a landowner, if you have a well-dependent structure, you need to start thinking about your water differently especially when it gets into those summer months.”
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