My wife, Shirley, and I recently returned from the 2017 Michigan Ground Water Association Convention (MGWA). This was the 89th annual convention, held near Traverse City, Mich., on March 9 and 10. All events, including displays, were held near the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, which is actually in Acme, Mich., a few miles northeast of Traverse City. Both these towns are in northwest Lower Michigan and are known to be in the so called snow belt, as they are close to Lake Michigan. This was my 60th consecutive MGWA Convention and my 65th overall, and Shirley has been to almost that many.
The convention got off to a good and quick start on March 9 with seminars beginning at 8 a.m. Although some folks were still driving in, attendance at all the seminars was quite good — much better, in fact, than 2016. The first seminar was the National Ground Water Association (NGWA) sponsored McEllhiney lecture. This was presented by my good friend Michael Schnieders from Ottawa, Kan. He discussed how certain parameters of a well operation can be used to predict future maintenance issues and, in fact, the lifespan of the well. He did a really good job on an interesting subject, and he indicated that some specs now call for a well life of 75 to 100 years.