by Gongwer News Service
May 16, 2008

After years of wrangling about how to protect the Great Lakes and manage the basin’s water resources, the legislature this week moved legislation that would join Michigan in the Great Lakes Compact to give the state — and not Congress — control over its water.

The Senate finished work Thursday on its version of the package, including a key bill in the water withdrawal debate that proponents praise as using a science-based approach to determine safe levels of usage with standards for allowable loss of fish.

The House also passed part of its package, with several more to come. Despite the long negotiations, differences remain on issues such as when to mandate permits for large-scale use and how quickly to put the new standards into effect.

Although SB 860 — which sets an adverse impact standard for withdrawals — got some crossover votes from a couple of Democrats who said that any bill is better than none, the legislation was not easily passed with a 24-14 vote.

Besides setting the adverse impact cutoff, Senate legislation also adopts fundamental recommendations of the Groundwater Conservation Advisory Council, provides for development of zones to protect 80 percent of cold water systems from future withdrawals, creates new permit requirements providing public input and protection of common law water rights, establishes procedures for public input on proposed water usages, and protects existing levels of water usage.

Significant aspects of the bill were shot down by Democrats, and then kicked afterward by many environmental groups. A 60-group coalition decried the bill as “toothless,” saying it doesn’t go far enough to adequately protect state fisheries and open rivers and streams from large-scale uses.

Many also said that the bill would threaten funding and oversight for the Department of Environmental Quality with the provision that the department can’t make any new rules or collect fees outside of the scope of the legislation.

But not every lobbying firm was lined up against the bill, with many saying it takes a scientific, rather than emotional, approach to making decisions about who has access to the state’s hottest commodity and who should be shut out from making withdrawals.

Those in favor of the Senate-passed legislation included the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, Michigan Farm Bureau, Michigan Chamber of Commerce and Michigan Manufacturers Association.

Indeed, this issue is as appropriate as any to demonstrate how it’s possible for separate groups with opposite interests to see the exact same piece of legislation through a profoundly different lens.

While the MUCC praised the bill as “the absolute best groundwater protection in the world,” saying, “the conservation community should be applauding loudly,” Clean Water Action said the only people who would support the legislation are those who “care more about corporate lobbyists who want to profit from our waters without any meaningful restrictions that protect the public’s resource.”

The scientific approach that many favored will come from what Republicans call a “precedent setting” assessment tool, an automated computer program that would determine if a proposed withdrawal would have an adverse resource impact on water levels and other resources, and examine detailed impacts on fish populations.

Because the tool is so new, Sen. Patricia Birkholz (R-Saugatuck), chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee and the Senate’s lead negotiator on the water package, said the state will need a year before using it to screen withdrawals, hence the one-year effective date built into legislation.

But extending the effective date that far could cause a rush of applications now from people who suspect they wouldn’t qualify under the computer model, the DEQ and others said.

Whether to postpone enacting the legislation, along with what should be the threshold of large-scale withdrawals at which a $2,000 permit is needed (the bill has 2-million gallons per day; some wanted 1 million) and what amount of fish reductions due to water use (3 percent is in the bill; some want 1 percent) is allowable are all still points of contention among lawmakers that will likely go to a Senate House conference committee for negotiations.

But Ms. Birkholz has said she’s confident that after already coming to a compromise on more than 20 issues, her colleagues will soon have a package that is agreeable to a majority of the Senate.

Meanwhile, Sen. Liz Brater (D-Ann Arbor), who along with other Democrats attempted to amend the bills to make them more restrictive, seemed less optimistic: “We do have a great deal of agreement but there are some crucial unresolved differences.”

All eyes are now to the House, awaiting passage of withdrawal legislation in that chamber.

While it did not vote on any more of its water withdrawal bills on Thursday, it did approve HR 294 and HCR 76, which urge Great Lakes states to reject changes made to the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact and enact it as presented in December 2005.

Critics of the Senate’s bills are hinging their hopes on the House’s legislation, which so far is working with a gallon cap for withdrawals and allows for more DEQ involvement.

Rep. Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor), chair of the Great Lakes and Environment Committee and another key architect of the package, has said she wants a comprehensive package ready for vote by summer break.

Indeed, she held meetings late in the day on Wednesday to attempt a meeting of the minds on a few outstanding areas of disagreement, which include the threshold for state oversight of large water withdrawals, how to protect coldwater streams and tourism in those areas and how to ensure current users are protected and services are maintained.

“We’re getting closer everyday,” she said. “The time to find an agreement is now.”

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