LANSING, MI -- Michigan House Republicans are fast-tracking new Farm Bureau-drafted legislation that would shield data on agricultural withdrawals from the public and rework regulatory review of private groundwater extraction.

House Bill 5638 was introduced Thursday, Feb. 22 by Rep. Aaron Miller, R-Sturgis, with 24 other House Republican sponsors; including Rep. Gary Howell, chair of the natural resources committee, which is hearing the bill at 9 a.m on Wednesday, Feb. 28.

It has yet to receive a fiscal impact analysis.

If passed, the bill would shift the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's review process for large quantity groundwater withdrawals toward default approval and exempt certain data on agricultural water use from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

In Michigan, agricultural irrigation is the largest type of "consumptive" water use; meaning some or all of the water used is not returned to the local ecosystem.

Environmental groups say the legislation is an attempt to dismantle water resource protection. The legislation would, essentially, relegate the DEQ to merely monitoring water use rather than ensuring overuse doesn't harm the environment, they argue.

Miller says the goal is to help farmers in Southwest Michigan, where there's increasing demand for corporate seed crops, to get approval for irrigation wells in areas where there's already multiple wells.

"We're saying, as growers, we doubt the system the system DEQ is using and think it needs to be updated," said Miller, who won the 59th District seat, representing St. Joseph and Cass counties, in 2016. Both counties are heavily irrigated.

Since 2009, anyone asking to use more than 100,000 gallons of Great Lakes, groundwater or Michigan river water per day is required to get approval and report use volume to the DEQ, per interstate requirements in the Great Lakes Compact.

Proposed large capacity withdrawals must pass Michigan's Water Withdrawal Assessment Tool, which models the impact on the watershed. If the tool flunks the proposed withdrawal, DEQ staff can overrule it by conducting a site-specific review.

That's what happened in 2015 when Nestle initially sought its still-stalled approval from DEQ to withdrawal significantly more spring water from Osceola County.

Miller says the site-specific review -- in which DEQ staff take a closer look at localized hydrogeology when the tool's judgement is questioned -- takes too long. He campaigned on a promise to push for review changes or a new assessment tool.

"Our farmers have for several years been hampered pretty badly by the DEQ when putting in a well," he said. "Not always, but certain wells in the 'maybe zones' require a site-specific review. It's gotten to the point where it's time consuming and an unnecessary burden."

Miller said the bill "really lets the data be the driver."

An anglers group sharply criticized the legislation.

Bryan Burroughs, Michigan Trout Unlimited director, said the bill would "undermine the entire water withdrawal law so profoundly that it's hard to fathom the disorder and legal uncertainty that would result from its passage."

Burroughs argues the DEQ tool offers regulatory certainty by allowing businesses to check whether a proposed withdrawal will pass before making investments.

If the tool and DEQ staff review find the withdrawal may harm stream flows and fish populations, the request is supposed to be denied.

The bill language includes a "rebuttable presumption" that would, essentially, require the DEQ to automatically approve large water withdrawal applications if they come with a hydrogeological analysis. The DEQ would get 10 days to review the analysis and, if there were concerns, would still have to grant a provisional approval.

The well owner would get to measure water levels over two summers before a final approval is required.

"Bill supporters are trying to change the standard of unlawful adverse resource impacts by allowing any paid consultant's subjective determination to replace set current standards in law," Burroughs said.

The bill also stipulates the DEQ must use either a 2003 study by Bruce Hunt, a 2011 study by Nicholas Dudley Ward and Hilary Lough, or "a peer-reviewed functional equivalent" to asses stream flow depletion.

Aquifer performance test and stream flow data for agricultural withdrawal applications would be exempt from public review.

Miller said well application data is a farmer's "own business."

"The data that produced from a test well or area wells around a given well, that their own business. That's their own information," he said. "I don't think it should be out there for everybody to see."

Liz Kirkwood, director of the Traverse City nonprofit group FLOW (For Love of Water), said H.B. 5638 fits alongside a bill package passed by the state Senate which would establish an oversight panel stacked with industry members with the power to DEQ kill regulations.

"I think what these new bills represent is a new strategy to just wholesale remove the state of Michigan's oversight of its public water resources," Kirkwood said.

Shielding data from the public would intimidate challenges to an application, she said. The data could be discoverable in court "but you'd have to go through a lawsuit."

Burroughs, a member of the state Water Use Advisory Council, said provisions in the bill are in "complete conflict" with existing council recommendations.

"At a time where water quality and large water withdrawals are as important as ever to Michigan's citizens, this bill seeks to prevent the public from knowing anything about how these withdrawals are approved by giving them a FOIA exemption."

"With no knowledge about how these are approved, I'd have zero confidence in this regulatory program," Burroughs said.

The Michigan Farm Bureau is also a council member. A message left with Farm Bureau spokesperson Laura Campbell was not returned.

Miller said the "Farm Bureau led the way as far as providing the language and writing the bill" but he's been working with other groups like Michiana Irrigation Association.

His district includes the village of Constantine, nicknamed the "Seed Corn Capitol of the World" because Monsanto and Pioneer have flagship seed processing plants there.

Revenue from corn seed has increased over the past decade.

"You can hardly drive anywhere in St. Joseph county without seeing a pivot in the field, said Miller.

"We are the most irrigated county east of the Mississippi."