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Water legislation opens tap on rare agreement
A water bill that grandfathers existing uses and provides a model to assess the risks of a new well's location passed both the Michigan House and Senate and awaits a signature by Governor Granholm.
Farmers and environmental groups found a rare point of agreement in early February when both the state Senate and House agreed on long-awaited water use legislation and sent it to Governor Jennifer Granholm to sign into law.
Senate Bills 850-852, 854 and 857 were on the Governor's desk Feb. 10, and she was expected to sign them, giving farmers the presumption of innocence over adverse water use; giving the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) respect and recognition as a voluntary and effective standard for water stewardship; and stopping diversions of Great Lakes water outside the watershed.
Hailed by groups as diverse as the Michigan Environmental Council, the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, the Detroit Audubon Society and the Michigan Farm Bureau, the bills require permits for all large water users with existing wells; protects the state's trout streams and sets up a model that will ensure effective future water use for all users.
For agriculture, not much has changed. Farmers will be required to report their water use just as before, except that the deadline for reporting to the Michigan Department of Agriculture is now April 1. The difference is, now farmers will be presumed innocent of any adverse use. New wells or expanded well capacity gets a bit more scrutiny, but farmers will have the tools available to be sure a new well will not damage nearby streams or aquifers.
The model is an important part of the legislation, said Sen. Patty Birkholz, the lead sponsor the bills.
"The amazing thing to me was that at the first set of negotiations, everybody agreed that this was the model to use," she said.
Being developed now by a team of MSU scientists, the U.S. Geological Survey and others in consultation with the Ground Water Conservation Advisory Council, the model will allow anyone considering a new well that can produce more than 2 million gallons per day to go to the Internet (Web site to be announced), plug in their proposed well location and know instantly if it will adversely affect the aquifer or neighboring wells.
"If you find that your new well proposal does have an adverse impact, you can move it, or drill it deeper so that it will not have an adverse affect," Birkholz said. "You'll know immediately if you're OK."
While the legislation calls for development of the model within two years, after that time, Birkholz said, the legislature will take a final look and will either adopt or reject it as a whole.
"The legislature won't be able to say they don't like certain parts of the model or play other political games," she said.
The model, once permanently approved, is expected to replace the initial language in the bill that protects only trout streams, and will further protect all creeks, rivers, streams and lakes from potentially adverse impacts of new wells.
"This legislation states that any new well that has a capacity to pump more than 70 gallons per minute within a quarter mile of any trout stream must be at least 150 feet deep or greater," said Scott Piggott, manager of the Agricultural Ecology department at Michigan Farm Bureau. "Anything less than that, and you drill at your own risk. But this model takes the place of the quarter-mile distance and sunsets it," he said. "In essence, if farmers follow the water use Generally Accepted Agricultural Management Practices (GAAMPs) and get into MAEAP, the rest should fall into place," he said.
The legislation also keeps a separate, already-established method of water use conflict resolution intact.
While the legislation seems to satisfy widely divergent groups, all of whom are concerned with water use in Michigan, getting it to the form where Granholm would sign was no easy task, said Wayne H. Wood, president of Michigan Farm Bureau.
"This package of bills has been a long time coming, and our members should feel a sense of accomplishment knowing their voices have been heard, thanks, in large part, to the exceptional work of our county Farm Bureau Water Action Teams," he said. Those teams were part of the effort that brought hundreds of farmers to the Senate's Water Use Committee hearings last year, chaired by Birkholz.
"We also owe a great deal of thanks to Senator Birkholz for sponsoring these bills and leading the legislative charge, as well as the supporters in the Michigan House and Senate and the governor's office," Wood said.
Perhaps most delightful to the agriculture community in the legislation is the first-time statutory mention of MAEAP, a voluntary program that, if followed, prevents agriculture pollution and exceeds requirements of various permits including manure management and water use.
"MAEAP, as mentioned in this legislation, will be part of the future of water conservation," Piggott said. "It's still voluntary, and it's the best program we have."
From the beginning, Birkholz said, the Senate committee wanted to include MAEAP in the legislation.
"MAEAP is an excellent program, and I really appreciate that it's a science-based solution to problems, and it will help the Groundwater Advisory Council to develop the final model," she said.
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