In this report, we:

• explain how Michigan's failure so far to apply a strict public trust test to all waters, including those that private parties wish to capture and sell, amounts to a policy that water can become a private commodity and could result in the equivalent of the California gold rush for water speculators at the public's expense;
• outline the legal, policy and environmental issues associated with the commercialization of Great Lakes Basin waters;
• call on Michigan and the other Great Lakes states and provinces immediately to halt new and increased private water ownership and sale projects;
• urge amendment of the new proposed Great Lakes Annex 2001 state-provincial implementing agreement to close a loophole that would permit water in small containers less than 5.7 gallons in size to be exempt from anti-diversion provisions;
• urge enactment of water conservation legislation;
• propose a "Traditional Water Use Protection Act" to clarify that reasonable, traditional water uses in Michigan - including the use of water for agriculture, manufacturing, drinking and other purposes-is distinct from the sale of water as a product, and that these traditional uses can continue as before, subject to centuries of common law precedent and the above water conservation legislation; and
• sketch a long-term policyto prevent the commercializationof the Great Lakes.

We also challenge misleadinginformation put forth by the bottled water industry and its allies.

Get the report (pdf, 2.2 MB)