State agrees on limits for water use

The Detroit Free Press reports on the recent legislative efforts to govern water withdrawls from the Great Lakes watershed:

Michigan's first laws to safeguard its signature resource -- water -- from being sucked out in massive quantities were passed Thursday by state legislators.

Farmers, utilities, industry and Nestle Waters' controversial Ice Mountain bottling plant can continue their water withdrawals.

It will make Michigan the last of the eight Great Lakes states to live up to a 1985 pact to regulate large-scale water removal.

Highlights of the state's first comprehensive rules on water use:

Those who plan to start withdrawing more than 5 million gallons a day from the Great Lakes or 2 million gallons a day from inland waterways or groundwater must qualify for a permit.

New withdrawals by bottled water plants that exceed 250,000 gallons daily must get a permit, with slightly tougher standards.

Diversions outside the area surrounding the Great Lakes are forbidden, but water in containers less than 5.7 gallons is allowed.

Industries must develop conservation and management plans; companies will be encouraged, but not required, to follow them.