It may not work, but it is certainly worth the effort.
While our elected leaders in Lansing waver between coming down on the side of the environment and 9 million Michigan residents or Nestle Waters North America and its campaign cash, Manistee County officials have tried the direct approach.
County commissioners recently voted to add a resolution to a draft master plan that would ban water withdrawals that "have no direct benefits to residents ... and which do not increase public safety, health or welfare."
That's pretty clear.
If there are direct benefits from Nestle's bottling operation in nearby Mecosta County -- where the firm pumps tens of thousands of gallons of essentially free water from the ground and bottles it for sale at $1.75 or so a bottle -- they go pretty much 100 percent to Nestle.
And even Nestle's legal team would have a hard time convincing a jury that pumping Manistee's aquifer dry to make a few bucks helps to "increase public safety, health or welfare."
County Commissioner Glenn Lottie said, "We want to keep away from bottling companies coming in or major withdrawals. I personally don't believe our Senate or Legislature has done a very good job ..."
He was right.
The Michigan Legislature recently approved a Great Lakes compact that would help deal with pollution and prevent water from being pipelined to arid parts of the country. But it also contains a gaping loophole -- which Traverse City environmental attorney Jim Olson has warned about for years -- that allows Great Lakes water to be treated as a commodity; that language would in turn allow for large-scale withdrawals and bottling operations just like the one in Mecosta. But no one has mustered the interest or commitment to change it. Or maybe Nestle and friends are doing a better job of arm-twisting.
The proposed master plan doesn't include an outright ban on all withdrawals. Instead, any such plans would have to go through the county board of commissioners. A new locally owned micro-brewery, for instance, could be allowed to withdraw water because it has direct benefits -- jobs and a product for the community and profits that stay home.
The Legislature could try to usurp the resolution or it could be overturned in court. But for now, it is smart lawmaking that sees a problem coming and tries to do something about it on behalf of area residents.
Every county in Michigan that enjoys some local water resource such as a lake or river -- which means every county -- should immediately consider a similar bit of legislation.
Bottling can pose a very real threat to aquifers and, worse, puts the water we depend on for drinking, watering crops, processing cherries and a thousand other tasks at risk. The time to mount a defense is now.
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