Water issues have long been an area of public policy concern in “water poor” Western states where prior appropriation rights have been successful in placing a commercial value on water. However, in the “water rich” states in the Midwest and Northeast, water has been undervalued due to reasonable use statutes that apply no limits to water withdrawals. Because of the federal Clean Water Act, surface water withdrawals from lakes and rivers have received oversight, valuation, and regulation. However, as surface water becomes scarce, a new source of water is being tapped – groundwater. Many people think of groundwater as a commodity to be mined. Like minerals, groundwater is essentially a nonrenewable resource, as it takes hundreds to thousands of years to refill underground aquifers. The mining of water has far-reaching impacts on the surface above. Local wells, rivers, streams, and lakes are adversely affected as underground water supplies are tapped at unprecedented levels. In Florida, for example, spring-fed lakes are literally disappearing as their groundwater disappears.

As the marketability of bottled spring water grows, commercial bottling companies are tapping groundwater supplies. In many states, the facility gains the rights to groundwater simply by purchasing the land above it. These companies do not have to pay for, or even report the quantity of, water they are withdrawing from underground aquifers. One such example of this occurred on Dec. 6, 2000 in Michigan when the Perrier Group of America, a subsidiary of Swiss-based Nestle, applied to the local Michigan health authorities for permission to drill two water wells in an attempt to establish a source for a new bottling plant to ship its popular Ice Mountain brand of spring water throughout the Upper Midwest. Public outcry erupted and House Bill 5725 was introduced to establish a permitting system for large water withdrawals. This bill text forms the basis of our sample bill. However, this bill has been modified to include additional methods for mitigating adverse impacts on groundwater withdrawal established in other states. These methods include the addition of groundwater-surface water connections and reporting requirements.