Newsletter
Public Trust Bills to be Re-Introduced in Legislature
Water Grabs
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Newsletter: Spring 2022
Three important bills will be introduced in the Legislature on March 17th. Once again the people will be looking to the Legislature to do the right thing for water and for the people they serve. These bills are not new and it is important that the public loudly get behind them so the slow moving legislature finally sees their importance and gets them passed this year. We will post the bill numbers on our website and social media as soon as they are introduced and give you suggestions for how to contact your reps and build momentum in the public arena.
So far corporations such as Nestle have been able to get away with selling the public’s water for a profit because the public trust has been interpreted as applying only to surface water under the constitutional mandate, not groundwater. Groundwater has been treated as a private commodity, not a public good. So private companies have been allowed to seriously impact our aquifers for years, lowering levels for farmers and rural well users alike. Aquifers in urban areas suffer as well. The aquifer in Evart which Nestle contracted to draw down through capture of two city wells is down 14 feet from historic levels and not recharging.
Outfits like Nestle and Blue Triton try to stir up fear of the public trust doctrine claiming we are trying to restrict the use of water for agriculture. This is the exact opposite of the intent of the public trust. It is meant to protect that water so it is available to farmers as well as everyone else, and not grabbed by private entities and shipped out of the watershed
The bill to be introduced by Representative Rhabi will declare that all ground water is to be treated under the public trust doctrine as a public good just like the Great Lakes are treated. It is long overdue for this to be clearly established in our statutes so state agencies can have no doubt about their responsibilities.
Representative Hood will be introducing the bill that closes a serious loophole in the Great Lakes Compact and fixes the statutes amended at the time of its establishment. It will get rid of the exception to shipping our water out of the basin when it is in containers of less than 5.7 gallons. This loophole has allowed the likes of Nestle to take basin water all over the world for its profit.
Representative Pulotski will introduce the bill that gives state agencies the teeth they need to actually enforce the laws that uphold the public trust and put the needs of people and ecosystems before the needs of private corporations seeking profit.
MCWC will be advocating ways to get behind these bills and build the momentum of public bi-partisan support for their passage. Stay tuned.