Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation Meeting

Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation (MCWC), along with its President, Terry Swier, and noted environmental attorney, Jim Olson, will be at the Horizon Books in downtown Traverse City on Saturday, July 30 from 11:00 a.m. to Noon. They will host a public presentation on efforts to stop Nestlė, the State, and others from establishing precedents to divert public water for private export out of the watersheds of the Great Lakes Basin. (more...)

Swier will tell the story of how a nonprofit grassroots citizen’s group has successfully fought Nestle’s -- the international Swiss food giant -- attempt to privately claim the waters of Michigan for export. Olson will describe how this political drama to privately control water in the Great Lakes Basin – nearly twenty percent of the world’s freshwater -- has unfolded, and what citizens can do to stop it. The presentation will cover:

- How Michigan Circuit Court Judge, Lawrence Root, reasoned through 19 days of trial testimony and stacks of scientific data and complex legal arguments, and ordered Nestle to stop pumping and exporting water out of a watershed of the Great Lakes.

- How Nestle with the help of Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) arrogantly circumvented the Judge’s order to stop pumping.

- How Nestle has appealed to Michigan’s appellate courts in an attempt to erase a century of water law protection so it can establish legal precedent to gain private rights over public and common waters at the expense of citizens, landowners, farmers, and businesses.

- How Nestle met with officials of the City of Evart and State and engineered a take over of part of the City’s municipal water supply for export and private sale.

- How Nestle desires to win an exemption from pending international agreements that may protect the Great Lakes from diversions and exports. These agreements remain open for public comment until August 30, 2005.

- How Nestle has threatened Michigan’s Governor, the State, and its citizens with a federal lawsuit that would destroy attempts to safeguard this water.

- How the Michigan Legislature has stalled and delayed doing anything about water diversions and exports.

- How citizens, landowners, and businesses can join MCWC and others to win the fight to save these precious public waters from diversion and sale.

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN THE FUTURE OF WATER IN THE GREAT LAKES AND THE GLOBAL WATER ISSUE, YOU’RE INVITED TO HORIZON BOOKS CAFÉ, 243 EAST FRONT STREET, DOWNTOWN TRAVERSE CITY, ON SATURDAY, JULY 30 AT 11:00 A.M.