Bipartisan Water Deal for Granholm, GOP?
By George Weeks

Lawmakers are near deal on Great Lakes water legislation.

Michigan Politics

At long last, after a closed door meeting last week with interest groups in a room behind the Senate chambers, it appears the Granholm Administration and GOP lawmakers are near a bipartisan deal on Great Lakes water legislation.

In 2002, water issues got more attention than in any previous gubernatorial campaign. Repub-lican nominee Dick Posthumus called for comprehensive legislation, including standards for withdrawal of groundwaters that feed the lakes.

After her election, Governor Jennifer Granholm, although herself a bit wobbly at times on some environmental issues, pushed for strong action by Great Lakes governors and the GOP-ruled Michigan Legislature.

A task force named by Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema (R-Wyoming) called for comprehensive water withdrawal laws including "an aquifer protection statute."

But for nearly three years, Michigan has seemed to be treading water on water.

On November 28, a coalition of 43 environmental groups proclaimed opposition to "weak water use bills" introduced by Republicans.

Subsequently, James Clift of the Michigan Environmental Council said the bills "seem to be steadily improving," as honed in the Senate Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee chaired by Senator Patricia Birkholz (R-Saugatuck). But he said more changes are needed.

Senator Michelle McManus (R-Lake Leelanau), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee on environmental quality, credited Birkholz with forging compromise.

On Thursday, revised language emerged from a meeting Birkholz convened at the Capitol that included representatives of Granholm, Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), and business and environmental groups.

On Friday, DEQ spokesman Robert McCann said: "Thankfully, and to her credit, we are very close to being fully behind" the package as revised by "a good bipartisan effort."

The original bills applied only to inland lakes and streams. One strengthening provision adds a specific standard for proposed withdrawals from the Great Lakes including its groundwaters, requiring that all withdrawals beyond a certain limit for certain uses "be returned to the source watershed" and not result in "significant adverse resource impact."

Birkholz says: "All of a sudden, the stars are lining up," and she hopes the package will clear the Senate by Christmas.

Maybe all the rhetoric of 2002 will produce results before Campaign 2006.

The executive and legislative branches had better soon get their acts together on how best to balance economic and environmental interests on water withdrawals. Otherwise, extent of export of our water will be the call of the courts, as it has been with the Ice Mountain pumping/bottling operation near Big Rapids.

Meanwhile, Granholm is reviewing draft "Annex 2001" Great Lakes protection proposals to be considered by eight governors and two Canadian province premiers later this month in Milwaukee.

Traverse City attorney Jim Olson, representing Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, says the proposals would allow "export of hundreds of millions of gallons of water a year in a bottle from watersheds, as much as in a ship or large containers."

Director Ken DeBeaussaert of DEQ's Office of Great Lakes says he's gathering views of interest groups to give to Granholm before she decides whether to sign the annex that is an amendment to the Great Lakes Charter.

George Weeks is the political columnist for The Detroit News and is syndicated by Superior Features.