“FLOW FOR WATER” WOULD LIKE TO ANSWER A FEW COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: What is “Public Trust?”
A. Water has been held by the public to protect the use of water by citizens for over 2000 years. Water belongs to everyone. Public trust means that the state has a duty to hold and manage water for the benefit of all citizens -- farmers, businesses, and communities alike — free from abuse or export for sale by the state or private interests.
Q. Why is the Public Trust so important?
A. Private interests, globally and in the Great Lakes Basin, quietly, and not so quietly, have been shifting control of water so that water can be privately owned and sold out of the Great Lakes Basin at our expense. The growing world water crisis will place huge demands on freshwater. If public trust principles are not adopted, private interests and foreign countries will be able to buy land and claim the right to export water under international trade laws, and Michigan and other states or provinces will have a difficult time stopping them. All members of the public, including farmers, businesses, and riparian landowners, will lose their water rights to the claims and challenges made by outside interests.
Q. What can Citizens, Farmers, Communities, and Businesses Do?
A. Join together immediately to pass public trust laws, like H. B. 5319 in Michigan, to close the gap that would allow water exports under the Great Lakes Compact. Groundwater and surface water, our lakes and streams, are all one hydrologic system that must be protected as a commons for all of us, both public and private users of water.
Q. Some people claim that they own the water or groundwater under their land. Is that correct?
A. No. It is incorrect. No one owns water. It belongs to everyone and is held by the state under a solemn duty to protect water for all of us. Those who claim ownership in groundwater or water are misrepresenting the truth unwittingly playing into the hands of powerful special interests who would like to own or purchase land and water as a commodity so they can control it against the interests of the public and private users - farmers, homeowners, communities, businesses, tourists, and citizens.
Q. Some claim that the Public Trust, in Bills like Michigan H. B. 5319, would require permits, taxes, and fees for the withdrawal of groundwater. Is this true?
A. Absolutely not. There is nothing in public trust law or H.B. 5319 that stands for any such thing. Neither H.B. 5319 nor the public trust in water requires or authorizes permits, taxes, or fees.
In fact, permits and fees are already required by Michigan groundwater and surface water withdrawal regulations.
The public trust has nothing to do with groundwater regulation. It simply affirms and declares the overriding public trust principle that government cannot interfere with or abuse our rights to use water, including exorbitant fees or taxes, and that government cannot sell our allow the export of our water for private purposes or gain.
Citizens everywhere need to support bills that protect the water rights of people, such as Michigan's House Bill 5319. In a few simple paragraphs on one page, we as the people can declare and affirm that all waters in the Great Lakes Basin, including groundwater, are within the scope of public protection.
Bills like H.B.5319 will uphold our use of water and defend our quality of life, enterprise, and jobs. It would make one thing very loud and clear. Water belongs to all of us, including our children and grandchildren.
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