The Feb. 20 Press editorial "Great Lakes, good regulations" praising Michigan's new water withdrawal laws misstates a fundamental principle of our system -- the tradition that water belongs to all the public and cannot be privately owned unless for a public purpose and authorized by citizens through their elected officials or referendum.
The new legislation exempts water in containers under 5.7 gallons from the definition of "diversion." This could rip a giant hole in the system of protection for public water resources.
http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-1/114105545728090.xml?grpress?NELE&coll=6
Posted by Dave at February 27, 2006 03:40 PM