Prevent Water Diversion

Our Petition!
Associated Legislative Bills/Information

Why Prevent Water Diversion?

Our club has had many discussions over the years as how to accomplish a task or have a significant say in an issue that affects us. After many discussions, towards the end of 2004, it was agreed that the best way to have an impact was to learn how to petition! Of the many issues that could be addressed, the one that chose was to "Prevent Water Diversion".

The following general information was what concerned our club and prompted our actions!

Did you know that;

1) On the average, only 1% of the water of the Great Lakes is replenished by rain/snow fall!

2) As of December 7th, 2004, Michigan is the only Great Lakes state that had NO water diversion laws!

3) The Federal Water Resources Development Act of 1986” puts the responsibility squarely on the states & provinces bordering the Great Lakes to manage this resource

4) The original Annex 2001 Draft, a proposed Compact for the Great Lakes States, appeared to allow more water diversions/withdrawals in a time consuming process that weakened or voided the individual states authority. The Annex 2001 Draft is the standards that all the states & Canadian province would agree to use in controlling water diversions from the Great Lakes Basin.

5) Available pacts & drafts did not eliminate the possibility of Great Lakes water from being pumped to Southwest states!

6) Current infra-structure of natural gas & oil lines, fully capable of transporting water, already exists that can pump waters that have been diverted to the Mississippi river. Take a look at the current U.S. Army Corp of Engineers water way from Chicago and it really is a simple engineering exercise to enlarge and use the existing waterway to accomplish this.

7) Bottled water companies and other proposed/potential diversions remove water from the Great Lakes watershed permanently, whether it is inland or on the shoreline.

8) Bottled water companies are limited by local/state guidelines on amount of water being pumped by one plant from underground sources (most limits are 1 million gallons a day).

9) Current penalties for exceeding the limit are small, & violations can take up to 2 years to review & penalize the guilty company.

10) The bottled water companies consider the small fine part of doing business by regularly pumping an extra 200,000 gallons a day & have no intention of stopping.

Our Goals!

1) Michigan establish effective laws to prevent water diversion

2) Establish a effective petition procedure at the state and local level for our organization

What we did!

During the course of developing our petition, we came to the attention of the Whitmore Lake Rod & Gun Club, which is an affiliate of MUCC, and initiated an alliance on this petition.  In January, 2005, we launched our petition campaign to solicit signatures during the spring shows our club participates in.  During this time, we also sought to gather support from a multitude of organizations ( Izaak Walton League-Fenton, Lake St Claire Walleye Association, Metro West Steelheaders....) and was invited to speak at several organizations membership meetings and was well received and supported.

  Discussions were initiated with other organizations/businesses (MSSFA, Trout Unlimited, Gander Mountain, MUCC....) as we learned how to be successful in a petition drive. In May, 2005, these discussions led to MUCC senior staff issuing a letter of support for our petition drive (see "MUCC Support" above). May 2005 was important in that our parent organization MSSFA, agreed during the state board meeting to formally accept the petition process as a tool for future use. 

In June, 2005, representatives from the Whitmore Lake Rod & Gun Club and Huron Valley Steelheaders went before the MUCC State Convention and succeeded in having the petition/resolution approved. The importance of this happening is that MUCC has a voice on anything that occurs related to conservation legislation or efforts in the state of Michigan. The Governor, DNR, Fish & Wildlife, State Representatives, and Senators all recognize this, thereby adding all the voices that MUCC represents to the petition drive! During this same time frame, our representatives participated in a legislative day at the state capital and were able to meet and discuss this issue with members of the House & Senate.

We would like to think that our efforts had some impact, but we recognize that our club came into the issue at a significant crossroads. The efforts of so many, who have been involved over the last 7-8 years, were rewarded when Governor Granholm signed the revised version of the Great Lakes Compact (formerly Annex 2001 Draft) in December of 2005. While this does not entirely meet our first goal of completely protecting the Great Lakes to our satisfaction, we recognize that everything, has to start somewhere.

Much more needs to be accomplished on Preventing Water Diversion, specifically, Michigan still needs to establish its own Laws that close and eliminate the loopholes that still occur in the Great Lakes Compact. We will continue to monitor, update, and if need be, petition again for these continued improvements.  If you wish to learn more, become involved, please feel free to contact us at hvsteelheaders@yahoo.com .