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Not having a lot of background on Michigan aquifers, but equating surface evaporation to ground water pumping is completely wrong in western states.

Surface evaporations is largely from water that is easily replenished on a relatively short timescale. Pumping groundwater at too high rates irreversibly decreases the groundwater reservoir capacity and even if it doesn’t, can take ages to replenish.

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Tangential, but is Michigan considered a western state?

> Tangential, but is Michigan considered a western state?

It's typically considered a “Midwestern” state (a term which is kind of odd with the modern boundaries, since the “Midwest” is in the northern half of the country running, on the east-west axis, from the central part of the continental US fairly far to the east.)

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