On May 27, Michigan Governor Granholm issued a commendable executive directive to try to bring sense to Michigan water policy. Its chief newsmaking feature was a moratorium on new bottled water operation permits.
http://michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-36898-118987--,00.html
Problem: the issue isn't bottled water per se. It's bottled water as a subset of a much bigger problem. Are we going to permit water, which belongs to all of the people, to be captured by private parties, ownership of it claimed, and profit made through its sale?
Whether the water leaves in bottles, tankers, or pipelines, as long as it's a private sale of same, it should be barred.
So item 1 in the directive, which now says:
Until further notice, state departments and agencies, including the Department of Environmental Quality, shall exercise administrative discretion to refrain from issuing any permit or approval for a bottled water processor unless the applicant certifies that the delivery or sale of all bottled water production will be limited to the Great Lakes Basin. This temporary moratorium is intended to afford the Michigan legislature an opportunity to debate and enact a comprehensive water withdrawal law and legislation addressing the issue of what constitutes a diversion of Great Lakes water.
Should say:
Until further notice, state departments and agencies, including the Department of Environmental Quality, shall exercise administrative discretion to refrain from issuing any permit or approval for the private capture and sale of water. This temporary moratorium is intended to afford the Michigan legislature an opportunity to debate and enact a comprehensive water withdrawal law and legislation setting forth policy (or barring) the private capture and sale of water.
Posted by Dave at June 4, 2005 02:31 PM