Let the Michigan Groundwater Stewardship Program A*Syst you with groundwater protection! Roughly 3% of the planet’s water is freshwater and only a tiny fraction of this is available to drink.  In Michigan, almost half of our residents depend on groundwater to supply them with potable drinking water.  So how can we, as citizens, help protect this valuable resource?  Some of the most beneficial actions can be implemented in and around the home…. The Michigan Groundwater Stewardship Program (MGSP) offers Michigan residents a way to evaluate the risk potential of daily home and garden practices on the quality of the water they consume.  This is accomplished through the Home*A*Syst, Lawn*A*Syst, and Lake*A*Syst exercises, which are FREE and CONFIDENTIAL evaluations of your household and lawn-care practices as they pertain to ground and surface water quality.   Each of these exercises simply involves a consultation with a groundwater educator who would come to your home, ask you a few questions, and help you determine if your household and lawn-care practices pose a risk to groundwater quality and what you can do to reduce these risks.   So what’s the difference between Home*A*Syst, Lawn*A*Syst, and Lake*A*Syst? Home*A*Syst focuses on household recycling, household hazardous waste storage and disposal, liquid fuels storage and disposal, stormwater management, water well characteristics and maintenance, septic system maintenance, and also contains information on lawn and shoreline management practices.  The primary objective of Lawn*A*Syst is to help you evaluate the potential impact your lawn-care practices (e.g., mowing, fertilization, pest control) may have on ground and surface water quality.  If you live on a lake, pond, or river, then Lake*A*Syst can help you determine the potential risk your home practices may pose on nearby surface water.  Shoreline protection is the emphasis of Lake*A*Syst.  With each exercise you will receive a booklet and/or pamphlet with lots of valuable information pertaining to your household and lawn-care practices and how they are tied to water quality.  Furthermore, you will receive information about your local topography, water drainage patterns, soil physical properties, and how these landscape attributes may influence your groundwater.   So how do these exercises work?  Essentially, you and a groundwater educator would analyze each of your household/lawn-care practices and assign a risk level as it pertains to groundwater quality.  For those practices that are ranked “medium risk” or “high risk”, you would develop an action plan to help reduce these risks.  How many of your household/lawn-care practices you want to analyze with the groundwater educator is entirely up to you. Groundwater is a shared resource so your household and lawn-care practices may invariably affect the quality of drinking water for your community as a whole.  Home*A*Syst, Lawn*A*Syst, and Lake*A*Syst are helpful exercises to help you reduce risks to this highly valuable resource.  If you are interested in any of these exercises (I recommend all three!), please contact me, Josh Shields, AmeriCorps Environmental Educator, at the Shiawassee Conservation District via phone (989.723.8263 ext. 3) or email (shieldsj2@michigan.gov).