Michigan

Great Lakes, Great Michigan: What Michigan's New Water Laws do to Protect our Most Precious Natural Resource

The new laws began regulating large quantity water withdrawals, which are defined as withdrawals over 100,000 gallons per day over any 30 day period. Below are some specifics of how the new laws regulate specific types of withdrawals.

  • Water withdrawals between 100,000 and 2 million gallons per day do not require a permit but the water users must register the withdrawal with the state and submit annual reports documenting their water use. In addition, the user may not cause an "adverse resource impact." However, it is important to note that the definition of "adverse resource impact" is highly controversial because it pertains to "characteristic fish populations" meaning the fish in a waterway must be harmed to determine that an "adverse resource impact" has occurred. But not all water-dependent natural resources are home to fish so the new law does not provide an adequate level of protection to prevent resource harm.

  • New or increased water withdrawals from inland waters such as lakes, streams, rivers and groundwater (other than the Great Lakes) greater than 2 million gallons per day must get a permit. The sole requirement for these withdrawals is that they cannot cause an "adverse resource impact" (see reference above).

  • New or increased water withdrawals from the Great Lakes exceeding 5 million gallons per day must get a permit. The requirements for these permits are more complicated than for an inland waterway. For example, the water must be returned to the place it was withdrawn after use, the use must be considered "reasonable", the applicant must consider voluntary efficient water management practices approved by their industry sector, and there can be no "adverse resource impact."

  • The first step toward incorporating the efficient use of Michigan's water is now in state law. Specifically, the laws require large-scale water users (i.e., agriculture, golf courses, classes of industry, public drinking water systems, etc.) to develop best practices for efficient water use by February 2009. Unfortunately, the laws fell short of requiring applicants from these user groups to incorporate the practices at their operations.

While the new laws offer some protections for Michigan's resources there are weaknesses in the new water laws. These weaknesses place Michigan's water resources at a greater risk of privatization.

We advocate passage of The Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact, an interstate agreement between the eight Great Lakes states which must be adopted by each state legislature and ratified by Congress, with strong implementing legislation and believe it presents a critical opportunity to improve our current state laws. We propose the Great Lakes, Great Michigan 2007 platform as a supplement to the Compact.

Take the next step: learn more about what you can do to help protect Michigan's water resources and fight climate change.