EGLE officials brief House subcommittee on agency support services, IT modernization and mounting water-infrastructure needs

Officials from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) described the agency’s administrative support, information-technology modernization and water-infrastructure financing programs during a presentation to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy at a committee meeting.

EGLE Deputy Director Travis Bosco and Paul McDonald, director of the agency’s Finance Division, outlined outreach and education programs, records-management and FOIA processing, GIS and drone tools, and the department’s role administering the state revolving funds (SRF) that finance community water projects.

Bosco said EGLE’s outreach team runs large conferences and public meetings that reach thousands of people each year; he cited a recent virtual PFAS summit with about 2,000 attendees from across the U.S. and abroad and said the agency held 56 public meetings and hearings last year with about 2,800 total attendees. He also described production of instructional materials for regulated industries (for example, an “air permit to install 101” video series). "If you call that number, you get a person," Bosco said of EGLE’s central Environmental Assistance Center, which he said handled more than 20,000 calls and emails last year.

Nut graf: The presentation emphasized that EGLE’s small centralized support teams—records management, FOIA, a call center, GIS and web services, drone pilots, and a small finance staff—enable field programs to operate more efficiently. At the same time, McDonald told lawmakers that demand for state and federal water-infrastructure financing has surged, while some capitalization and grant sources that underwrite favorable SRF loan terms have declined, creating funding pressure on communities confronting aging pipes and lead service lines.

Most important facts and figures

- Outreach, education and public engagement: EGLE staff said the agency organized 26 conferences and trainings last year (online and in person) and an annual PFAS summit with about 2,000 virtual attendees. The Michigan Green Schools recognition program now counts 358 schools for the current school year. EGLE’s equipment lending program was checked out about 50 times last year, serving nearly 8,000 students.

- Customer service and records: EGLE’s Environmental Assistance Center handled roughly 20,000 contacts in the past year and the agency has scanned and electronically delivered about 1,300 pieces of incoming mail per month since it switched to centralized electronic mail scanning in January. The department reported processing more than 20,000 FOIA requests annually and posting fulfilled FOIA requests publicly for one year.

- Information management and field tools: The agency reported about 450 internal users of GIS tools. EGLE centralizes drone and sensor operations for field work such as remote site mapping and volume estimation for scrap-tire cleanups; staff described using drones to create 3-D images to estimate pile volume and cleanup costs and to detect groundwater venting along shorelines.

- Workforce and training: EGLE has begun paid internships this year with 19 interns placed across six divisions and two offices, and it runs internal leadership and onboarding programs and industry continuing-education offerings for operators (drinking-water and wastewater certifications).

- Finance and program delivery: Paul McDonald described two outward-facing finance programs: the Michigan Underground Storage Tank Authority (MSTA), which provides financial assurance services and funding for corrective actions at operating underground storage tanks, and the Water Infrastructure Funding and Financing section (WIFs), which administers the State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs for drinking water and clean water. McDonald said the SRF issued 107 unique loan-and-grant packages in fiscal 2024 totaling about $1.7 billion and that WIFs’ standalone grant unit issued 85 grants in 2024 and manages roughly 450 grants totaling about $865 million across 10 grant programs.

Funding pressure on the SRF and lead service-line work

McDonald described a rapid rise in communities’ requests for SRF financing: he said preliminary asks rose from roughly $150 million in 2018 to several billion dollars in recent cycles (he cited more than $5 billion in requests in 2024 and about $3.6 billion for 2025). He said the department is working through the 2026 funding cycle and expects similarly high demand. McDonald warned that changes in federal funding flows have reduced the amount EGLE can set aside as principal forgiveness or to suppress interest rates. He said principal forgiveness available to communities fell from more than $35 million in 2021 to about $11 million in 2025.

The department also briefed members on lead service-line replacement. McDonald said EGLE estimates roughly 400,000 lead service lines remain in Michigan and gave an average replacement cost of about $9,000 to $10,000 per service line — a total funding need EGLE estimated in the range of $3.9 billion to $4.0 billion to complete full replacement. He explained that federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funds available through the SRF can be used only for lead service lines, not for related water-main work, and that communities often face higher total costs because main-line replacement and other construction must accompany service-line work.

Discussion, follow-ups and committee action

Committee members asked questions after the presentations; EGLE staff described operational improvements and stressed the scale of funding needs for stormwater and wastewater system upgrades. The meeting concluded with unanimous consent to approve the committee minutes from May 6. Representative Markkanen moved approval; there were no objections and the minutes were approved by unanimous consent.

Ending: EGLE officials said the department expects to include proposals in its FY 2026 executive budget package to help bridge water-infrastructure gaps, including a targeted $50 million proposal to support lead service-line replacement, and stood ready to answer lawmakers’ follow-up questions.