LANSING – Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today signed legislation that for the first time protects Michigan waters from large-scale diversions and withdrawals. The landmark legislation fulfills a commitment Michigan made more than 20 years ago to join with other states and Canada to protect and preserve the waters of the Great Lakes Basin.
http://michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168--137274--,00.html
LANSING – Governor Granholm, joined by PIRGIM and other members of Michigan’s environmental community, signed a landmark package of water-use bills today, bringing long overdue protections to Michigan’s waters.
http://pirgim.org/MI.asp?id2=22422
Clean Water Action did not support the agreement that resulted in the bills signed into law today. We are proud, however, of the environmental campaign for water withdrawal and diversion protections that Clean Water Action helped lead and believe the new water withdrawal permitting rules, limited stream protections, and the conditional legislative approval are steps in the right direction.
Only a few of the 55 groups and businesses who supported the Great Lakes, Great Michigan campaign for protections against large-scale water withdrawals and diversions had an opportunity to weigh in on the pros and cons of the water use agreement when the deal was struck earlier this month. The agreement was proposed on the eve of what we thought was likely to be a bipartisan victory in the state House for strong protections, and then on to an uncertain future in the Senate. Clean Water Action was one of the groups who weighed in on the industry-backed proposal and we believed--and still do--that on balance it was not a deal that we could support. That decision was based on our 30-plus years experience working for water protections, and the ongoing advice we received from the very best legal and policy minds on the issue of water privitization. All thought that creating a legal sanction for the diversion of Great Lakes waters by private industry was unacceptable and posed a high risk for the future of maintaining public control over our waters. Both the benefits of the new water use rules, and the new diversion loophole, are now law. The question for us today is what to do about enforcing the new rules, plugging the big loophole, protecting the Great Lakes, and putting the public firmly in control of our waters.
http://great-lakes.net/lists/enviro-mich/last30days/msg18402.html
Posted by Dave at February 28, 2006 06:27 PM