claims of science can mask bad policy

When you look at a Great Lakes tributary stream, do you see an intricate ecosystem or gobs of water going to waste? Science can develop tools to help you measure how change affects the river, but your starting assumption will shape the result science yields.

The Grand Rapids Press editorializes that a water withdrawal assessment tool should be written into law that is based on the premise that streams can lose considerable water before harm is done. But that overlooks not just the impact on poorly understood stream hydrology, but the cumulative effect that would sanction scores of such losses to Michigan streams and ultimately the Great Lakes. There are Sunbelt states that exercise greater water prudence.

A better approach is for the Michigan legislature to base policy on water conservation, and require major water users to show how and why they should be allowed to take water only after conservation is practiced. If we want Texas or Colorado to do so before they get access to the Great Lakes, we should do no less.