Report: Flint's High Water Bills May Double in Next 5 Years

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Report: Flint's High Water Bills May Double in Next 5 Years

By DAVID EGGERT, ASSOCIATED PRESS
LANSING, Mich. — May 13, 2016, 4:44 PM ET

A report released Friday suggests that Flint residents' pricey water bills could double in the next five years due to several factors, even though the state has pledged aid amid the city's ongoing lead-tainted water crisis.

The analysis, which was submitted to a governor-created committee working to address the crisis, warns that the average residential bill of nearly $54 a month may rise to $110 — not counting sewer charges — "absent any action to increase funding or decrease costs." The typical residential water bill has doubled since 2009 and is far higher than in other regional cities of Flint's size.

Cost savings were a factor in the city's fateful switch in 2014 from the metropolitan Detroit utility system to a temporary water source, the Flint River, until it could connect to a new pipeline. Flint was under state management then, and environmental regulators mistakenly told the city not to add a chemical to prevent lead from leaching out of old pipes.

The study says bills are so high because Flint went many years without any rate increases — later resulting in large hikes — and its aging infrastructure was built for 200,000 people but now serves about half that due to population loss. It says Flint also has a withering industrial base and has "effectively been paying for two water sources," purchasing from Detroit again while waiting for the Karegnondi Water Authority pipeline to be built and still maintaining its own plant as a backup.

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/report-flints-high-water-bills-double-years-39095247

[Siwsan]

1. Those of us who have wells are getting slammed with spiraling sewage bills

Mine have doubled, over the past 5 or so years. When we complained we were told to back off, or they would force us to tie into the city, or in my case, township water lines.

I have no doubt there is some deep, deep, deep corruption going on, here.

[yeoman6987]

3. Sounds like Florida

They are high here.

[scscholar]

2. That will discorage waste of a precious resource...

so there's a small positive side. Here in Seattle we aren't charged enough for water so many people just waste it.