Separate packages of bills to protect Michigan's water resources were introduced Thursday by state Senate Republicans and Democrats.
The goal is to give the state its first rules tailored to regulate water withdrawals from lakes, streams and underground aquifers.
If a law passed, it could control the use of Great Lakes water by industries that use large quantities, power plants, some municipal water systems and farms' irrigation systems.
The bills join a third set introduced Tuesday by House Democrats, creating a smorgasbord of proposals to be hashed out in committee hearings and backroom deal-making in the coming weeks.
Proponents of instituting a law want to present a plan to Gov. Jennifer Granholm by the end of the year. The Republican bills would regulate withdrawals of more than 2 million gallons a day and prohibit diversions through pipelines, barges or other bulk methods.
The Democratic Senate and House plans go further. They largely prohibit the shipping of bottled water for retailing outside the Great Lakes watershed without legislative approval. The state's Chamber of Commerce is among opponents of any water law, contending that prohibition is an unfair and illegal barrier to interstate commerce.
The Republican plan speaks specifically to protecting the state's premier trout streams from withdrawals; the Democrats' versions are more broadly worded to encompass all the state's waters.
"That's a crucial difference" between the bills, said Frank Ruswick, special assistant to state Department of Environmental Quality Director Steve Chester. He also said the DEQ has "a number of concerns" with the Republican plan.
State Sen. Patty Birkholz, R-Saugatuck Township, said the Republican plan was agreed to in principle by the DEQ and other groups including the state Chamber of Commerce, the Michigan Manufacturers Association, Trout Unlimited and the Michigan United Conservation Clubs.
The legislative plans are revised portions of Granholm's Water Legacy Act, which she proposed last year.
Contact HUGH McDIARMID JR. at 248-351-3295 or mcdiarmid@freepress.com.
BY HUGH McDIARMID JR. FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
In your voice
