Michigan House Water Protection Package is legislation for our children, our traditions

Press Release from the Anishinaabek Caucus of Michigan Democratic Party

Michigan House Democratic leaders present their Water Protection Legislative Package of 2019 during a Dec. 5, 2019, press conference. Speakers in support of the bill package also include Anishinaabek Caucus and environmental group leaders. (Photo courtesy Anishinaabek Caucus of Michigan Democratic Party)

LANSING -- Anishinaabek Caucus of Michigan Democratic Party Founder and Chair Andrea Pierce and several Anishinaabek Caucus members were in attendance at the Michigan House press conference for the Water Protection Legislative Package of 2019. Yousef Rabhi (D-Ann Arbor), Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia) and Rachel Hood (D-Grand Rapids) are using legislation to affirm that all waters of Michigan are held in the public trust.

At a Dec. 5, 2019, Michigan House of Representatives press conference in Lansing, Michigan Democratic Party leaders present their Water Protection Legislative Package of 2019. The three-bill package affirms that all the waters of the state are held inalienably in the public trust, bans the diversion of bottled water outside the Great Lakes watershed and explicitly authorizes the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to protect water in its jurisdiction. (YouTube video courtesy Michigan House Democrats)

Rabhi’s bill puts water resources into the public trust for the benefit of the people of Michigan.

"We need to manage our water responsibly for the benefit of the people of our state, instead of allowing it to be diverted, polluted or exploited for corporate profits," Rabhi said.

Pohutsky’s bill returns oversight for water resources to the Department of Natural Resources in the areas where the DNR exercises oversight for game and fish.

"Michigan’s wealth of freshwater is central to our culture, our economy and our very survival," noted Pohutsky.

Hood’s bill bans exportation of bottle water extracted in Michigan outside the Great Lakes Basin, thereby closing the small container loophole.

"We should not be allowing corporations to profit off of permanently removing massive quantities of the water that belongs to all of us," Hood said.

These bills recognize that surface and groundwater within the Great Lake Basin is a complex and connected single hydrological body that rightfully belongs to the people of Michigan for the benefit and sustenance of the people of Michigan.

Thunderbird Woman represents water protectors. (Image © Isaac Murdoch and courtesy Anishinaabek Caucus of Michigan Democratic Party)

"As water is essential to all living things, we can agree that water needs to be protected from exploitation," said Val Toops, Anishinaabek Caucus member and candidate for Jackson County Sheriff.

Andrea Pierce, chair of the Anishinaabek Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party, urged all Michigan residents to call their state representatives and ask them to support the Water Protection Bill Package.

Anishinaabek Caucus members, from left, Val Toops, Andrea Pierce and Blackcrow. (Photo courtesy Anishinaabek Caucus)

"Advancing legislation to care for our water is one of the main reasons we have formed the Anishinaabek Caucus so that we can protect the culture and traditions of the original people of Michigan," Pierce explained. "We need to work for and protect the water and the land for the next seven generations."*

* Editor's Note: To learn more about the Anishinaabek Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party visit their Facebook page or email
AnishinaabekCaucus@gmail.com.