Water Authority Sticker Shock: Suburbs to See Double-Digit Rate Hikes

Water customers in Oakland, Wayne and Macomb will face increases of as much as 11.3 percent under a proposal made Monday by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to make up a $25 million shortfall last year from declining water sales.

Proposed increases are even stiffer in Detroit – 16.7 percent – where thousands of water customers were in arrears on their water bills and faced shutoffs to collect $89 million in delinquent accounts, including about $43 million on 80,000 residential accounts.

The largest proposed increases in years, they’ll take effect July 1 as DWSD transitions to a regional water authority created to help Detroit lessen the impact of pension cuts as it prepared to exit bankruptcy.

They must be approved by the Board of Water commissioners, which has historically approved such requests, the Detroit Free Press reports. The vote is scheduled for March 11.

Under the new rate structure, bills will be figured on the previous 24 months of the customer’s actual water use rather than estimates provided by the communities served by the system, which have been unreliable in the past. Suburbs also sometimes tack their own charges on to the wholesale rate to cover infrastructure and operating costs.

The cost of water varies by community, and includes a flat monthly minimum usage fee and a charge for every 1,000 cubic feet (7,480 gallons) used. The proposed plan increases monthly user fees as rates based on usage would decrease.

Recently on Patch:

• Jobs: With Low Gas Prices, GM Reveals Decision on Bolt Electric Car
• Prosecutors: ‘Bad’ Samaritan Carjacks 88-Year-Old Stuck in Snow
• Watch What Happens When Valentine’s and April Fool’s Days Collide
• How Facebook Helped Boy Stand Up to Bullies
• Man Allegedly Pays Bail With $300 and Cocaine

DWSD spokesman Gregory Eno told The Detroit News officials hadn’t yet calculated the cost of the increases for average customers. Currently, the average customer pays about $70.67 a month. Under the new configurations and the water and sewer increases combined, the average customer could pay another $60.

DSWD Director Sue McCormick said the increases should be “a one-time thing, because once we do this, it will give us the ability to track the actual usage.”

The rates are also affected by a $5.5 million delinquent bill from Highland Park, which is under emergency management. DWSD doesn’t expect to collect any of that money, and suburban communities will have to make up the shortfall, consultant Bart Foster said.

Though water use is declining, operational and infrastructure costs remain the same McCormick said.

Northville: “We’ve Somewhat Shot Ourselves in the Foot”

The higher rates may be difficult for residents of the suburbs to swallow, officials said.

“I suspect it will be a surprise to the public,” Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel told The Detroit News. “I don’t think people realize the Detroit Water and Sewerage Board is still in control.

“And those rates are going to go up because they have to, based upon low assumptions of water consumption,” he said. “If you have less consumption and you still have all of these bills to pay, the only way to get that back is to raise rates.”

Northville Township manager Chip Snyder said he hadn’t seen the rates, but expected an increase due to the township’s distance from Detroit. Preliminarily, it looks like the usage rate would drop 16.7 percent, while the flat monthly cost would increase 89 percent.

“We know in western Wayne County, we’re the farthest from Detroit, so we understand often times our rates are higher based on that,” he said. “We’re expecting our rate to go up somewhere in the area of 24 percent.”

Northville’s lower consumption results in part because residents have embraced an ordinance designed to conserve water.

“... We’ve somewhat shot ourselves in the foot because we’ve decreased consumption, which then resulted in a rate increase,” he said. “We’re trying to find some balance within that equation.”

» Are you getting the free daily Patch newsletter and news alerts? Find your Patch and click on the link to sign up!

BLOOMFIELD-BLOOMFIELD HILLS | WEST BLOOMFIELD | BIRMINGHAM | FARMINGTON-FARMINGTON HILLS | ROCHESTER-ROCHESTER HILLS | NOVI | NORTHVILLE | ROYAL OAK | FERNDALE | CLAWSON | HUNTINGTON WOODS-BERKLEY | TROY | WHITE LAKE-HIGHLAND | OAKLAND TOWNSHIP-LAKE ORION | PLYMOUTH-CANTON | DEARBORN | WYANDOTTE | GROSSE POINTE | TRENTON-GROSSE ILE | MACOMB TOWNSHIP | CLINTON TOWNSHIP | ST. CLAIR SHORES | SHELBY-UTICA | NEW BALTIMORE-CHESTERFIELD

Photo via Shutterstock