Welcome to saveMIwater.org... a website dedicated to helping Michigan's citizens protect one of our most valuable natural resources: our communities' water supplies.

"We never know the worth of water 'til the well is dry." -English Proverb

about MCWC...                             

Organized for educational and scientific purposes, MCWC's goal is to conserve, preserve and protect Michigan's water, natural        resources and the public trust in those resources for the benefit of the public.

Traverse City—FLOW: For Love of the Great Lakes, an award winning film, premiered in Traverse City on November 16, 2008, and was successful beyond our expectations. The State Theater was filled to capacity (and a little beyond) with people from all walks of life, ages, and politics.

Immediately following the film, at least 600 people faced into an early winter blast to walk two blocks to the magnificent Traverse City Opera House to attend our panel discussion and engage in a vigorous Q&A.

A pledge to protect the waters of the Great Lakes Basin was circulated and over 375 people signed this pledge (you may download your own copy of the pledge below).

There is no question that the sensibility of public ownership and control of water and public trust on the part of citizens overrides the shallow justification asserted by those who defend the Compact product exception with its flimsy 5.7 gallon container limit.

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We the undersigned hereby join and pledge our support to a non-partisan coalition of citizens of Michigan and the Great Lakes Basin to declare the waters of the Great Lakes Basin and the State of Michigan a public commons held in trust by the respective Great Lakes states for the benefit of their citizens. In doing so we support the following: Enactment of legislation or other formal legally binding action by Congress of the United States to correct the Great Lakes Compact by removing any water-as- product or export exception to the diversion ban in Section 1.2 of the Compact, or clarifying that the exception does not include water itself as a product or export. Enactment of legislation by Michigan, or if necessary by an Amendment to the Constitution of Michigan, to declare that the waters of the Great Lakes Basin within the State of Michigan are a public commons held by the State as Sovereign in trust for the benefit of its people, and to remove the “product” or “export” exception to the diversion ban of the Compact.
Click Here to Print our “Pledge to Protect the Waters of the Great Lakes Basin” PDF

Close loophole in Great Lakes pact
For years environmental attorney Jim Olson has been a voice in the wilderness. Long before the Great Lakes states (including Michigan) and Congress approved the Great Lakes Compact, Olsen was warning that wording included in the final version of the pact created a massive loophole that would allow Great Lakes water to be considered a commercial product and sold as a commodity. His warnings were often met with a shrug. Those writing the compact language disputed his interpretation. For many environmentalists and others, the most important task was simply to get the compact passed by the legislatures of the Great Lakes states, signed by the various governors, passed by Congress and signed by President Bush. So an honest reading of the document that raises concerns even among laymen must be addressed.

Group Meets to Fix the Great Lakes Compact
Traverse City—The initial goal is to pass a Michigan constitutional amendment, either through the legislature or by popular referendum, that would accomplish two things: No. 1, eliminate what some environmentalists feel is a dangerous loophole in the recently passed legislation designed to protect waters of the Great Lakes basin and No. 2, clearly establish that Michigan citizens own their water and only they have the right to determine whether and who would be able to sell it for private gain. The legislation of concern, the Great Lakes Compact, is now federal law after having been ratified by legislatures in the eight states with land in the Great Lakes basin. The law prevents diversions of water to outside the basin except under some very specific and controlled conditions. But the law allows companies to ship water out of the basin in containers of 5.7 gallons or smaller if the diversion does not cause certain, specified environmental damages. Buried in the fine print, the Compact by definition also excepts "water produced as a product" from the ban on diversions. “This sets up a climate where hungry states, corporations, or nations outside the basin could tap Great Lakes water if it is packaged in any size containers,” says environmental attorney James Olson, an organizer of the November 16 event.

On this Web site; you can learn about MCWC, Board Members and Contact Information, and the water issues that     concern us. Find out how you can help.

Some of the files, reports and articles available from this web site are in PDF format. 
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