Last July, new rules in Michigan required most would-be irrigators to get permission to withdraw water either from groundwater using wells or from flowing streams and rivers. This was shocking in itself, for Michigan is a riparian state in which both surface and groundwater used to be freely available to all those above or adjacent to it (subject to the doctrine of reasonable use). The threshold level is 70 gallons per minute, so a fruit grower needing that capacity—perhaps wanting to trickle irrigate 15 acres—would be subject to the regulation. By spring this year, records show, about 600 people—mostly farmers—had […]