This is part seven of a ten-part series. 

By Brett Walton, Circle of Blue – May 10, 2022

The questions — the mental calculations for basic needs — are relentless. Can she go another day or two without doing laundry? Do those dishes need to be cleaned now or can they wait until tomorrow or the next day? 

Water conservation is a constant negotiation for Summer, a 58-year-old Oak Park resident. Unlike for most people, it’s also a survival strategy.

Summer said she has to be stingy with water to make her monthly budget pencil out. Water, sewer, stormwater, and garbage collection are all part of the same bill. To keep it in the $120 range she washes clothes once a week, sometimes every other week. She receives a fixed income from disability payments. With all her other bills, waste is a luxury she can’t afford. 

“Well, it is stressful, of course, because you can’t really live a functional life without water,” said Summer, who did not want her real name to be used in order to keep her personal struggles private. “And you know, it puts you in a scary place, a stressful place, where you’re concerned that your water’s going to go off and if it goes off, you’re going to have to pay all of the reconnection fees.”

Water rates are rising across Michigan as communities undertake long-needed upgrades to hobbled water, sewer, and drainage systems. These are necessary investments for the state’s future that nonetheless are exposing Summer and other low-income households to financial stress. 

Data compiled by the Institute for Public Utilities at Michigan State University shows that water prices are climbing quickly — more quickly, until recent price spikes, than most other goods and services. Since the mid-1980s, water prices grew at a higher rate than garbage, electricity, and natural gas, as well as the broader Consumer Price Index, which is a national measure of inflation. 

Other studies indicate that public officials should be worried about water price increases and their consequences for the state’s poorest residents. A comprehensive University of Michigan report published last year found that average water prices in the state, when adjusted for inflation, had nearly doubled between 1980 and 2018. 

The Michigan chapter of the American Water Works Association, in an informal survey conducted a year ago during the depths of the pandemic, asked its member utilities about past-due bills. The utilities that responded indicated that customers, in aggregate, owed $252 million. Neither the AWWA nor the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that is administering the state water assistance program, has updated those numbers.

Urban areas in the state’s southeastern counties, where Oak Park is located, have been particularly hard hit. In the last half-century, Detroit, Flint, Pontiac, River Rouge, Inkster and others had to contend with rising costs, aging systems, declining populations, spendthrift emergency managers, and high poverty rates. But the University of Michigan data also revealed that rising water prices affect every corner of the state, with high-cost pockets in the Thumb and Upper Peninsula.

Water leaders are taking notice.

“Affordability is an issue no matter where you are,” said Jaime Fleming, a board member with the Michigan chapter of the American Water Works Association, a utility group that recently completed a six-month discussion series on affordability. “It’s not just an urban issue. It is a rural issue, with some smaller systems or people that are way out away from a city. We have people struggling all across the state.”

What happens to those people when bills are high and residents cannot afford to pay them? Late fees accumulate, adding to the financial strain. Oak Park residents who receive a shutoff notice in the mail have to pay $10 to the utility for the warning. If the water is shut off, residents pay $90 to get it turned back on — but that fee applies only during regular business hours, Monday to Thursday between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Otherwise residents have to pay a $150 overtime rate. Kevin VanDeWalle, the Oak Park water supervisor, said the fees are designed to pass along the cost of operations.

Neighboring cities also use fees. Shanir Smith, a West Bloomfield resident whose water was shut off in February for past-due bills, said that the three-month payment plan the utility designed for her to catch up has a 9 percent interest rate. “It makes it harder,” Smith said.

Overdue payments can result in a tax lien against the property — another financial penalty that, in Oak Park, comes with a 10 percent fee on the overdue balance. In a rare but worst-case scenario liens can lead to foreclosure. Most often, residents have their water service shut off. Though Michigan placed a moratorium on the practice during the pandemic, utilities can once again turn off water to the home to compel payment. 

Though the rising cost of water is a state and national phenomenon, there is no clear-cut definition for affordable water. The concept is complicated because water affordability is relative. It is not only the size of the bill, but how it compares to the income of the household receiving it and to the cost of other essential expenses like food, housing, energy, and healthcare.

For Summer, it’s the combined strain of water, healthcare, and heating bills. She has sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease, and asthma. Her electric bill from DTE Energy is usually around $270 a month. Nights in her home are dim. “I allow the TV to brighten the house as opposed to turning a lot of lights on,” she said.