News

LANSING – State Representative Robert Dean (D-Grand Rapids) today voted for the final pieces of the "Great Waters, Great Michigan" plan, a comprehensive package that will protect the Great Lakes and other Michigan waters from diversion and misuse. All 10 pieces of the "Great Waters, Great Michigan" plan have now been passed by the House and are awaiting action in the Senate.

"Michigan is defined by its water," Dean said. "The Great Lakes and our other water sources play a vital role in our special way of life and serve as a driving force in our economy. Thousands of good-paying jobs in the manufacturing, agriculture, tourism and shipping industries depend on our water – this plan will protect our most precious natural resources and the jobs it provides for generations to come."  

The parts of the "Great Waters, Great Michigan" plan that passed today will:

• Protect the Great Lakes by requiring a permit for new water withdrawals of over 2 million gallons per day. The current threshold for a permit is 5 million gallons.

• Require the use of a water withdrawal assessment tool for new large-scale water withdrawals, to determine if the withdrawal will harm our natural resources.

• Ensure that large-scale water withdrawals will not harm other water users, including recreational users, or natural resources before they are allowed to proceed.

• Affirm that all waters of the state are public resources to be managed in the public interest.

Other parts of the package passed by the House last month will effectively ban the diversion of water outside the Great Lakes basin by ratifying the Great Lakes Basin Water Resources Compact; toughen water bottling standards by lowering the threshold that triggers an environmental review of withdrawals from 250,000 gallons per day to 200,000 gallons per day; and raise the fines for water-use violations from a maximum of $5,000 per day to $10,000 per day.