Congratulations to State Sen. Patty Birkholz of Michigan for coordinating introduction of water conservation legislation yesterday. She has moved the water protection debate in Michigan forward. It's a serious attempt at reform, but limiting the scope of protection to groundwater -- implied but not clearly stated in the release -- is unwise.
It appears under the proposal that bottled water gets a free pass, even if more water in volume is shipped out of the Great Lakes Basin than would be shipped in pipeline, barge or rail, all of which are banned. And there would be no advance public oversight of projects that convert public water resources to private profit. That, too, is unwise.
But at least the debate now is not about whether we should conserve water, but how far we should go in doing so.
http://www.senate.michigan.gov/gop/senator/birkholz/news/october2005/102705.pdf