Township Supervisor Says 40 Percent Water Rate Increase Could Hurt Community Job Growth

When the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department announced regional water rate increases last week, Plymouth Township topped the list with a whopping 40 percent increase. The proposed rate hikes averaged 9 percent across southeast Michigan.

Now Plymouth Township Supervisor Richard Reaume is worried about what that water rate increase will mean for job growth in a community that has attracted a number of new businesses in the past year.

Reaume said he knows of at least four large-scale businesses that opened in the township last year, each bringing with them 200 employees.

"We've been creating more jobs and attracting more people to our community," Reaume said. "We might be the only community that actually asked for more water last year, and we'll ask for more again this year. But we went over peak usage last summer, so we're getting penalized."

Peak usage is one hour the Water and Sewerage Department pinpoints each year as the time when the most water is used by all communities served. Last year, it took place in July, and during that hour, Plymouth Township used more than its agreed-upon share of water.

According Rodney Johnson, assistant director of the Water and Sewerage Department, this is a major factor in the high rate increase for the township.

The water rate hikes, which need to be approved by the Detroit Board of Water Commissioners and the Detroit City Council before going into effect, will increase water bills for businesses and residents alike in Plymouth Township.

Reaume said that in past years, the township has been able to use money out of the water budget reserves to keep more than half of the rate increases from trickling down to residents. This time, however, that won't be the case.

"That rainy day fund has been used up," Reaume said. "Now it's up to the board of trustees to decide what we're going to do."

He said that if the water rate hike goes into effect, residents can expect to see up to a 40 percent increase on one of the four lines of their water bill.

"Only the water charge line will be affected," Reaume said. The other lines pertain to sewer disposal, water bonds, and solid waste pickup. However, the Water and Sewerage Department is also proposing a 14 percent increase in sewer disposal for the coming year.

Reaume sent a letter last week to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing asking that the department continue negotiations to bring down the water rate increase for Plymouth Township.

Reaume also sent a letter to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Monday stating that consistent water rates are "vital for economic development and job creation" in Plymouth Township.

Plymouth Township is home to a number of industrial and research and development facilities, including , an automotive technology research company, and , a plastics producer that provides packaging for a number of food and beverage brands.

This year, Plymouth Township has already attracted a few new businesses, including Cognex, a vision systems technology producer based in Massachusetts, and , a Chinese auto company that is expected to create 200 local jobs over the next few years. Both companies opened the doors of their Plymouth Township facilities in late January.

"The companies that are already here are probably not going to relocate," Reaume said. "But there is a breaking point. Businesses come here expecting consistent utility rates, but for the past five years the water rate increases have been anything but consistent."

He said that during the past six years the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department has increased the cost of water to Plymouth Township by 70 percent.

Both Reaume and (R-Plymouth) say the high water rate increases in recent years are due to inefficiencies in a Water and Sewerage Department that has seen a sharp decline in water usage while maintaining operations created in a time when it was serving a much larger population.

Heise, a freshman house legislator and an attorney who worked as a Wayne County environmental director, has introduced a bill that would introduce a Regional Water Quality Authority to oversee the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD).

Each community served by DWSD would provide one representative to a revised water board. Those members would then vote for five rotating members of a nine member executive board which would oversee the system, which would be drawn from the ranks of local mayors and township supervisors. Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, as well as the city of Detroit, would each have their own representative as well.

"This regional authority would provide transparency in decision-making that just isn't there right now," Heise said. "It would allow the suburban communities to have a say in the annual water rates and what goes into those."

Heise said one of the first things the regional authority would do is examine the assets of the DWSD and do a full-blown restructuring of operations to find ways to save money and reduce rates.

"There are large elements that we need to shut down completely in order to get a handle on the cost of the system and stabilize rates," Heise said.

Reaume believes Heise's bill is one of the only solutions to the climbing water rates.

"They need to look for efficiencies," Reaume said. "Right now, there's no incentive to change the way the department operates because there's nobody there to provide oversight."

Currently, the bill is in front of the Michigan House Committee of Local, Intergovernmental and Regional Affairs and Heise is not sure when it will be up for a vote.

Reaume said he has already heard from "a number of residents" worried about the increases and expects to see more show up during public comment at at Plymouth Township Hall.