Tilting at Windmills, and Water Withdrawals
Michigan Politics
By George Weeks

Don Quixote, Cervantes' Man of la Mancha, tilted with windmills in a classic of the 16th century literary world about vision and fantasy.

Terry Swier, conservation's Woman of Mecosta, now faces harsh reality as she tilts with windmills in the 21st century legal world.

The idealist Swier is president of Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation. Last week, it filed a motion for reconsideration of the Michigan Supreme Court's 4-3 ruling in July that limited citizens' ability to file lawsuits under the 1970 Michigan Environmental Protection Act (MEPA).

Swier's group had won some lower court victories in its groundwater pumping case regarding Nestle's Ice Mountain bottled water operation in Mecosta County. And the Supreme Court held that families affected by pumping near Thompson Lake and the Dead Stream could sue.

But the high court said the residents were not directly affected by pumping near Osprey Lake and three nearby wetlands, and therefore could not sue. No matter that MEAP says "any person" can file suit "for the protection of the air, water and other natural resources…from pollution, impairment or destruction."

In announcing the request for rehearing, Swier said:

"It makes no sense to us. The court says we have standing to prevent the damage to the stream and one lake within the affected area of Nestle's pumping, but then says we don't have the right to protect the lake and wetlands on Nestle's property, even though these water resources are also harmed and within the affected area."

But the reality is that her bid to get this court's Majority of Four to change its judicial philosophy is as quixotic as those quests of the novelist's knighterrant who traveled the roads of Spain (where Swier and her husband once lived) with his faithful squire, Sancho Panza.

Swier's Sancho Panza is Traverse City attorney-author Jim Olson, longtime lawyer for assorted environmental groups. Olson's 30-page filing last week was a strong one - arguing that there is no conflict between MEPA and the Michigan Constitution regarding standing, and that the Supreme Court's ruling violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution "in depriving Plaintiffs of their right to petition the government to redress wrongs."

But I suspect that the Woman of Mecosta and her faithful squire are building the case for the court of public opinion, as Supreme Court Justice Cliff Taylor is the only member of the bench up for reelection.

Defeating incumbent justices also has proved quixotic.

Northern poll leanings

A statewide Detroit News/ WXYZ-TV poll last week indicated that Michigan voters favored unannounced prospects for presidential nominations over those currently in the field. Not quite so Up North.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is the overwhelming favorite in the current field of Democrats statewide and in the north. But when former Vice President Al Gore is added to the field, he has a 36-32 lead statewide, and a 50-17 lead in the Upper Peninsula (Clinton still leads Gore in the northern Lower Peninsula, 47% to 28%).

On the Republican side, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani leads by about 10% in the statewide poll over Senator John McCain of Arizona and ex-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Giuliani trails unannounced ex- Senator Fred Thompson of Tennesee statewide, 19-22, when Thompson is added to the mix.

But Giuliani has substantial leads over Thompson in the Upper Peninsula and the northern Lower.

The statewide samples of 400 in each primary have an error margin of plus or minus five percentage points, and the rate is larger in the regional samples.

One thing that stands out in this very early poll is that Clinton makes her second strongest showing in the Democratic field, beyond the Flint-Saginaw area, in the Traverse City media market, which includes the eastern U.P.

George Weeks retired last year after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.