As a Michigan senator, I feel a special responsibility to protect the Great Lakes. They are not only a source of clean drinking water for more than 30 million people but are also an integral part of Michigan's heritage and its economy.

There's over a billion people on this planet that don't have access to clean drinking water.

Wherever we can find water we can produce oxygen, fuel and drinking water.

The toxic cocktail of pesticides in our drinking water can't be addressed by the chemical by chemical regulatory approach of government. Citizens can take action at the local level to reduce or eliminate pesticides in their own back yard, in their local parks and schools.

It only takes a cup of gasoline to destroy a million gallons of drinking water.

The new standard calls for employers to provide cool drinking water, and enough of it for each worker to have one quart per employee per hour worked. That's a lot of water to have all at once, so fortunately the standard allows employers to replenish supplies throughout the day.