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

Conference Room

Community Health Bldg

209 Portage Drive

Bellaire

Conference Room

USDA Office Bldg

108 Depot Street

Bellaire

Three Lakes Association is concerned about the potential for abusive water withdrawals from groundwater in the State, especially if the withdrawals are from those aquifers that may affect the Elk River Chain of Lakes, a 500 square mile watershed.

We strongly support the passage of a package of House Bills (HB 5065 to 5073), which would provide adequate protection of groundwater while still enabling reasonable withdrawals for agriculture and industry. Passage of water withdrawal legislation would set the stage for passage of the Great Lakes Basin Compact. This Compact is based on a proposed agreement between the states and provinces within the Great Lakes Basin for protecting this water from abusive withdrawals and diversions.

Essentially our support is linked to passage of water withdrawal legislation based on conservative water management practices, as supported by the Great Lakes, Great Michigan Coalition of environmental organizations.

Currently proposed water withdrawal legislation, House Bills and Senate Bills, requires the use of a new Water Withdrawal Assessment Tool for screening purposes, which is a prudent practice. But we are concerned about the forecasts from this tool that would allow water withdrawals without engaging in a permit application and public review process, as proposed in Senate Bill 860. Under Senate Bill 860, some very large water withdrawals could adversely impact stream flows and fish thriving.

As described in HB 5068, the anticipated permitting process for very large withdrawals or withdrawals in sensitive areas is expected to proceed in a timely manner (less than 180 days) and include adequate time for public review and comment. The number of permit applications is expected to be relatively small, in the range of 10 to 20 per year, which could be administered by existing DEQ staff.

You are encouraged to learn more about the proposed legislation by clicking on the link to the Great Lakes/Great Michigan website, which contains links to the complete text of each proposed bill:

http://www.greatlakesgreatmichigan.org/legislation.htm

And then please call, e-mail, and/or write your elected State Representative and Senator expressing your support for the package of House Bills and your opposition to Senate Bill 860. Right now your elected legislators are receiving lots of encouragement from lobbyist interested in large water withdrawals without permits to pass Senate Bill 860.

For Antrim County residence:
kevinelsenheimer@house.mi.gov (Phone: 517-373-0829)
SenJAllen@senate.michigan.gov (Phone: 517-373-2413)

For non-Antrim County, Michigan residence:
www.house.michigan.gov/find_a_rep.asp
www.senate.michigan.gov/SenatorInfo/find-your-senator-htm

PDF files with the contact information for the relevant House and Senate Committees -

Senate Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee

House Great Lakes and Environment Committee Members