Michigan's environment department can't tell whether big water users exceed their limits, and wrote off unpaid fees from golf clubs still in business
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What happened
A May 2024 Michigan Auditor General performance audit (Report 761-0153-23) rated the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy's monitoring of the Water Withdrawal Program 'not sufficient': its water-use database held no information that would let EGLE compare reported withdrawals against approved limits, and 466 and 542 registrants failed to file water use reports in fiscal years 2022 and 2023. The unit wrote off 238 unpaid fee invoices totaling $47,600 from 93 registrants, 69 of them golf and country clubs, without documenting why; 9 of 10 sampled were active businesses. It also failed to notify 12 of 60 reviewed property owners of violations, did not escalate any of 6 violations where owners never responded, and did not document responses to 3 of 4 closed low-water complaints. EGLE agreed with the findings; in a March 2025 statement to the House Oversight Committee it said its corrective plan was sent to the Auditor General on September 6, 2024.
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