As Michiganders, we are constantly reminded of our role as guardians of 20% of the planet’s fresh surface water. This immense responsibility is hard to comprehend while we are literally surrounded by waves of blue.

But the urgency of establishing strong water security measures is beginning to settle in on many of us. Undeniably, market forces are at work with schemes that would catapult the world’s remaining freshwater into the commodities market. It’s simple supply and demand economics: With a dwindling water supply comes increasing demand and thus the temptation by some to exploit for profit both the resource and the world’s population.

Today, the Michigan House has a chance to lead Michigan into a more secure water future. The House should approve bills reported out by its Great Lakes and Environment Committee that provide another degree of protection against overuse of our rivers, lakes and streams while ensuring the public maintains control of our water.

Will House members act on behalf of all Michiganders and do everything in their power to secure control of our waters? Or will they ignore the critical role they play in determining Michigan’s water future — as the majority in the state Senate did last Thursday?

The Senate legislation requires only those pumping more than 2 million gallons per day to ask permission for that water use. Compare this to Minnesota’s permission trigger, which is 10,000 gallons per day, or Wisconsin’s, at a million gallons. Both states also have created a system to allow public input and oversight at levels up to 200 times more protective than the Michigan Senate approved. Michigan’s senators thumbed their noses at the public’s right to have a meaningful voice in decisions about massive water withdrawals.

And despite having won a majority of Senate support for a measure putting the public interest above the private international interests seeking to commercialize and privatize our water, the Senate leadership maneuvered the process to eliminate this measure from the bill when it went forward for final passage.

Why does this matter? In the words of former Gov. William Milliken, taken from a January 2008 letter to state lawmakers: “Under principles of international trade law, states must be clear and emphatic about imposing conservation standards for use within their borders, and reserving rights and authority as sovereign owner on behalf of the people of all waters of the state.”

Restated, we, the people of Michigan, must have the ability to say “no” someday to large water withdrawals — including proposals to mine and export our water in small containers — if these proposals are not in the public interest.

Similarly, a measure to increase protections for our prized trout streams won majority approval in the Senate but again Senate leadership maneuvered to prevent it from inclusion in the final bill.

The choices made by state lawmakers today will chart the course for Michigan’s future water security. We must send a clear signal to Lansing lawmakers that now is the time to act fully, clearly and completely to secure control of our waters. Real leaders don’t hesitate when the cause is great — and for the Great Lakes State, there is no greater cause.

Instead of supporting leaky laws, state leaders must ensure our waters stay in Michigan and that those wishing to use our water come to us. Now that’s a water future we can all get behind.

CYNDI ROPER is the Michigan direction for Clean Water Action, which has offices in East Lansing, Grand Rapids, Royal Oak, Clinton Township and Ann Arbor: www.cleanwateraction.org/mi. Write to her in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226 or at oped@freepress.com.