Notice to Agricultural Water Users:  New State Law for Agricultural Water Use Reporting

As part of an effort to protect Michigan’s water resources against diversions to other regions of the country and to improve our stewardship of this precious resource, the Michigan Legislature recently amended the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, (Public Act 451 of 1994). The passage of P.A.148 of 2003, which became Part 327 of Act 451, specifies that agricultural water users which have the capacity to withdraw surface or groundwater that exceeds 100,000 gallons per day (70 gallons per minute) are now required to register and report annually actual water withdrawals or face penalties of $1,000 for each violation.

Agricultural producers with a combined capacity that exceeds 100,000 gallons per day from all sources (excluding residential use) under common ownership or farm as defined under the Michigan Right To Farm Act, can choose from one of the following two reporting options.

1.      Register with the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) and submit an annual water withdrawal reporting form, called a “Agricultural Water Conservation Plan.” The MDA will combine your reported information with other reporting farms in your township and submit the totals to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), or

2.      Register with the MDEQ and submit annually a water use reporting form and pay a $100.00 filing fee each year. This information will be recorded for your individual farm instead of being aggregated into a township total.

A Registration Form is available to determine if you are required to report and if so, whether you are going to report to the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) or the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). Please complete this form and send by U.S. mail to the address on the form no later than October 1, 2004 to be included on the mailing list for the final reporting forms.

To help understand the reporting process, samples of both the MDA and MDEQ reporting forms may be downloaded and printed from the web sites listed below. These are NOT to be returned at this time. Actual reporting forms will be mailed to in December 2004 at the address you record on the Registration Form.  In the meantime, producers are urged to keep records of their water withdrawals throughout 2004, which will be the first reporting year.

We encourage your compliance with these new requirements for reporting water withdrawals, as they will provide valuable information for protecting Michigan’s economy and the environment of the Great Lakes. If you have any questions regarding the enclosed please feel free to contact Robert Pigg at the MDA (517-373-6893) or Ron Van Til at the DEQ (517-241-1414). This information package can also be found at www.mighigan.gov/mdamichiganwateruse or www.michigan.gov/deqmichiganwateruse.  Thank you for your cooperation in this effort.