This issue contains the following articles:

• 2010 Summer Internship Program, Cladophora green-algae survey
• Central Lake High School’s Envirothon Team, 7th in State
• Boat Props causing lake & river bottom damage
• TLA and MSU: Mini-Symposium on water quality protection
• E.coli test results
• Swimmer’s Itch, Bay Harbor CKD Leachate Update, and Burning Boat

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 5:00 – 9:00pm

Shanty Creek Resorts • Lakeview Hotel • Bellaire Ballroom
5:00pm – 5:45pm – Appetizers, Cash Bar, and Silent Auction
5:45pm – 6:30pm – Business Meeting and Teachers’ Remarks
6:30pm – 9:00pm – Dinner & Entertainment (Mike Ridley)

Enjoy 18 holes of golf at Cedar River Golf Course followed by a pig roast. Space is limited to first 128 golfers. The four person scramble shotgun begins at 1:00 p.m.Proceeds from this golf tournament will be directed to environmental education programs. For further information download the entry form or call the Grass River Office at 231-533-8314.

Three Lakes Association (TLA) and Grass River Natural Area (GRNA) are announcing the 6th Annual Charity Golf Tournament, Sunday afternoon, June 14th at the Cedar River Golf Course. Click HERE for more details and a registration form.

Enjoy 18 holes of golf at Cedar River Golf Course followed by a pig roast. Space is limited to first 128 golfers. The four person scramble shotgun begins at 1:00 p.m.Proceeds from this golf tournament will be directed to environmental education programs. For further information download the entry form or call the Grass River Office at 231-533-8314.

To read Representative Howard Walker’s reasons for opposing the House Bills, click on this link…www.gophouse.com/walker.htm The first of two position papers is “Groundwater and the Public Trust Doctrine”, a seven -page legal opinion, and the second position paper is a 16-page write up describing his reasons for opposing each of the proposed seven House Bills, HB 5065 to 5072.

Dear GLGM partners – Here is a short summary of what happened in the past weeks. We expect this work to wrap up sometime next week, which means NOW is a very critical time!

* The Senate and House each passed the Great Lakes Compact, but the Compact is tie-barred to each chamber’s package of Michigan-specific water use legislation. This means it will not pass until the rest of the legislation is agreed upon, and that is a good thing for now.

* The Senate passed its bills package 3 weeks ago.

* The House passed all but 3 of their bills over the past 3 weeks, and then passed those last 3 bills yesterday.

* If there is no negotiated agreement, the next step would be conference committee.

There are still attempts to negotiate the differences between the House and Senate bills, and if those are successful, we would avoid the much longer and difficult process of conference committee. We remain hopeful about this negotiation process; however, it is not only fragile but also under great pressure to move quickly!

Please call or write your elected officials today, over the weekend, or Monday with special emphasis on the Senate.

You can find contact information here:

House – http://house.michigan.gov/find_a_rep.asp

Senate – http://senate.michigan.gov/SenatorInfo/find-your-senator.htm

Or, you can sign our on-line petition, which will also get a letter to your state Senator at www.michiganwaternotforsale.com <http://www.michiganwaternotforsale.com/>

We remain consistent on four points – tell your officials the following:

1 – We want the ground waters of the state formally protected as part of the public trust.

The House package does this; the Senate package DOES NOT.

2 – We want to limit impacts on thriving fish populations in cold rivers and streams to less than 1%.

We could accept limits on some warm and cool water withdrawals to as much as 25% of the water – if a state oversight program kicks in, including public noticing, commenting, and hearings if appropriate. The House package does BOTH of these; the Senate package DOES NOT.

3 – We want a permit threshold of 1 million gallons a day.

A range of 1-2 dozen permits a year should be expected if the House program is enacted. If permitting does not apply until one crosses a threshold of 2 million gallons a day, there will be virtually no permitting in the state for large water withdrawals and this is what the Senate package allows.

and

4 – We want to protect the rights of current users, and grandfather currently permitted capacity even if it is not all currently being used. The House package does this; the Senate package DOES NOT.

Please flood the Capitol with calls and letters again between now and Monday evening! They return to session on Tuesday, and we hope they come back telling their leadership that their offices were swamped with communications supporting the Great Lakes, Great Michigan Coalition positions. THIS WILL HELP US and we thank you again for your help and support.

Have a great weekend! Sincerely, Grenetta

Grenetta Thomassey, PhD

Policy Director

Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council

426 Bay St., Petoskey, MI 49770

231-347-1181 ext. 115 231-838-5193 cell

www.watershedcouncil.org