U.S. Water News Online
LANSING, Mich. -- The Michigan Legislature voted to give the state oversight of manufacturers, utilities and water bottling plants that use large amounts of water -- approving compromise legislation that's headed to Gov. Jennifer Granholm's desk.
The Democratic governor will sign the bipartisan legislation. She also will lift a moratorium she had placed on new or expanded bottled water operations in Michigan until the Legislature enacted a water withdrawal law, spokeswoman Liz Boyd said.
A key provision, which the House approved 100-4 and the Senate passed 37-0, would designate water shipped outside the Great Lakes Basin in containers smaller than 5.7 gallons as a product -- not a diversion. But state permits would be required for any new or expanded water bottling plants withdrawing more than 250,000 gallons a day.
Michigan is the only state in the Great Lakes region that has not enacted laws to regulate large withdrawals.
Water users also would need a permit to make new withdrawals averaging above 5 million gallons a day from the Great Lakes or rivers connecting the lakes, or more than 2 million gallons a day from other water sources.
Users currently above those amounts would not need permits unless they plan to expand their withdrawals. Users could not take more than 100,000 gallons a day if the withdrawals would harm designated trout streams.
"Our Great Lakes and all of our waterways are, for the first time, being provided protection from overuse by large water users," said James Clift, policy director for the Michigan Environmental Council.
Granholm said Michigan's success as a state depends on protecting the Great Lakes.
"We are blessed by being surrounded by 20 percent of the world's freshwater supply, and we must implement the best possible protections that we can provide," she said.
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