By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Farm Bureau has put together a resource guide to help farmers navigate the new water law which was passed recently as part of the Great Lakes Compact.

According to state Sen. Patricia Birkholz (R-Saugatuck, Mich.) new water rules were required in order to pass the compact and became a part of the multi-state agreement that was signed into law by President Bush early in October.

The idea behind the new water resource guide is to help farmers understand what will happen during the coming months as deadlines pass and new requirements regarding water use and withdrawals come into play. The guide, which is called Creating Your Water Identity, is available as an Adobe Reader computer file and is free to download at the Farm Bureau’s website.

The graph lines that depict water zones and stream types that are detailed in the new legislation will become effective on Feb. 1, 2009, according to Scott Piggott, manager of the agricultural ecology department at the Farm Bureau.

The water withdrawal assessment tool, a computer model developed by state officials and scientists working with the state, will become mandatory on July 9, 2009 for anyone proposing large-scale water withdrawals from Michigan waters. This tool became available for use on a trial basis starting Oct. 1. Farmers are encouraged to get acquainted with this tool.

‘The biggest thing I want to get across to farmers about the water withdrawal assessment tool is test it out,’ Piggott said.
The guide, which is 34 pages, provides an explanation of Farm Bureau policy regarding water use, a brief history of the Great Lakes Compact, a glossary of terms, an explanation of how to determine a particular stream type, a sample water identity, a timeline of events and a helpful list of resources.

The list of resources includes individuals from the Farm Bureau, Michigan Department of Agriculture, Michigan State University Extension, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and MSU Water Research Institute.

The resource guide may take several minutes to download onto a home computer, if the user has a dial-up connection or an older machine. The file is 16 megabytes. A local library may have a faster connection.

To access the resource guide, go to the Michigan Farm Bureau’s website at www.michfb.com/mfb

Look for the Additional Resources column on the right. To access the new water withdrawal assessment tool, go to www.miwwat.org Anyone can try it out and provide feedback to the webmaster, if interested.