Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
Volume 9, Number 5 • September-October 2001
Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat NewsThe Newsletter of the Great Lakes
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by Scott McEwen, Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council
Michigan’s grassroots organizations and individuals are getting grant funding for cleaning up their local rivers and streams. For the second year in a row the Michigan River Network (MRN) has administered the Volunteer Cleanup of River and Streams Program. Under this program MRN distributed $50,000 in cleanup grants to 28 watershed groups and other local organizations in 2001. “We received over $70,000 in requests this year, so there is obviously a tremendous need for this type of funding” stated Scott McEwen of MRN.
Successful grantees agree to organize a river or stream cleanup in their area and report the findings to MRN. The program is funded through a legislative appropriation to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. “The ecological benefits as well as aesthetic benefits to people are substantial”, said McEwen. “This cleanup of trash and debris from Michigan’s rivers would probably not have happened without these grant dollars.” The MRN is planning to administer this program in 2002 and it is hoped that the available funding will be increased so that more rivers and streams can be cleaned.
On August 16th the State of Michigan and Governor Engler gave their approval for Perrier to withdraw 200 gallons of ground water per minute from the Muskegon River basin and sell it in markets nationwide. The company has stated that it plans to double this withdrawal as soon as possible. At this rate of withdrawal, this diversion will eclipse the withdrawal proposed a year ago by the Nova Group. Under that proposal, which Governor Engler vigorously opposed, the company would have withdrawn surface water from Lake Superior and transported it out of the Great Lakes Basin via a tanker ship. Anyone with an understanding of the hydrologic cycle understands that surface and ground water are intimately connected and that there is little distinction between exporting surface water via tanker and exporting ground water via plastic bottles. They are both water exports.
In a recent addition to the debate, Jennifer Granholm, Michigan’s Attorney General, was asked by Rep. Julie Dennis, Rep. William O’Neil, and Senator Chris Dingell to make a legal determination of whether Perrier’s proposal to pump ground water in Mecosta County is subject to the provisions of the Michigan Water Resources Development Act of 1986 (WRDA). The Attorney General rendered her Opinion on September 17, 2001, concluding that, legally, the Perrier water withdrawal is subject to the WRDA’s prohibition against diversion or export of water outside of the Great Lakes Basin. That law states:
No water shall be diverted or exported from any portion of the Great Lakes within the United States, or from any tributary within the United States of any of the Great Lakes, for use outside the Great Lakes Basin unless such diversion or export is approved by the Governor of each of the Great Lakes states.
The Attorney General sent a letter on September 13, 2001 to Rep. Julie Dennis, Rep. William O’Neil, and Senator Chris Dingell outlining why the Perrier project is subject to and in violation of the WRDA. She concluded that the ground water that feeds the stream is tributary water of the Great Lakes, and that the proposal constitutes a diversion or export outside of the Great Lakes Basin.
Granholm encouraged Dennis, O’Neil, and Dingell to implement a comprehensive water use law for the State of Michigan that would address some of these shortcomings. She also wrote the Governor urging him to work with the legislature in establishing a water use law. These considerations are of critical importance since other additional sites are being considered for water withdrawal in Mecosta County and in other counties within the headwaters of the Muskegon River. Without consistent rules for water exports, the state leaves itself open under the new international trade laws to water withdrawal efforts from across the globe.
For mostly unknown reasons, there is virtually no natural reforestation of northern white cedar trees in northern Michigan, trees which, when grown at the water line, provide protection for fish, increase the amount of large woody debris in the water, as well as preserve the riverbank by locking in soil. Because of this, the group “Cedars for the Au Sable” has established a program of offering planting kits for river and stream shoreline owners that include: 10 northern white cedar seedlings, protective fencing material wooden stakes, and complete planting instructions. The group and 91 river property owners planted over 1,100 white cedar seedlings this Fall. For more information, please call Howard Johnson at (989) 753-6373, or visit their website at: www.cedarsfortheausable.org