LANSING – State Representative Kate Ebli (D-Monroe) today voted to pass the "Great Waters, Great Michigan" plan, a comprehensive package that will protect the Great Lakes and other Michigan waters from diversion and misuse. All 10 pieces of the plan have now been passed by the House and are awaiting action in the Senate.
"This is a major victory for the Great Lakes State, and something I've been fighting for from day one," said Ebli, who sponsored a key bill in the package. "As lawmakers, it is our responsibility to be good stewards of all Michigan's waters. Protecting our Great Lakes and other waters from those who seek to exploit them is critical to protecting Michigan's future."
The parts of the "Great Waters, Great Michigan" plan that passed today will:
- Protect the Great Lakes by requiring a permit for new water withdrawals of over 2 million gallons per day. The current threshold for a permit is 5 million gallons.
- Require the use of a water withdrawal assessment tool for new large-scale water withdrawals, to determine if the withdrawal will harm our natural resources.
- Ensure that large-scale water withdrawals will not harm other water users, including recreational users, or natural resources before they are allowed to proceed.
- Affirm that all waters of the state are public resources to be managed in the public interest.
The House recently passed Ebli's plan to ratify the Great Lakes Basin Water Resources Compact as part of the package, which will ban diversions of water outside of the Great Lakes Basin. In order for the compact to be binding, it must be approved by all 10 Great Lakes states and Canadian provinces. The compact has been approved by Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, and approved in principle by Ontario and Quebec. The compact has yet to be approved by Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio.
Other parts of the package passed by the House last week will toughen water bottling standards by lowering the threshold that triggers an environmental review of withdrawals from 250,000 gallons per day to 200,000 gallons per day; and raise the fines for water-use violations from a maximum of $5,000 per day to $10,000 per day.
The plan also will allow local governments to request a review from the Department of Environmental Quality if they feel a water withdrawal may harm other water users; promote water conservation practices by large-quantity water users, such as municipalities and utilities; establish a Water Conservation Advisory Council that will make recommendations to ensure sound water policies are enacted in Michigan; and protect Michigan's unique and popular trout streams by preventing withdrawals that would cause more than a 1 percent reduction in the stream's thriving fish population.
Ebli said the plan will go a long way to protect the Great Lakes, Michigan's 11,000 inland lakes and streams and the good-paying jobs they generate in Monroe County and across the state.
"Our water sources are a vital part of our economy, as Michigan's agriculture, manufacturing and tourism industries depend heavily on healthy great lakes water," Ebli said. "As we fight to create good-paying jobs now, this plan will protect our most precious natural and economic resource for generations to come. I am fighting to protect our special way of life in Monroe County. We are the Great Lakes State, and this plan will ensure we stay that way."