Water Service Affordability in Michigan: A Statewide Assessment
Water infrastructure is essential for meeting and managing basic human needs. Public health begins and ends with clean and available water. But the cost of water services has been increasing over the years, making it more difficult for low-income residents to afford their water bills.
Along with a team of colleagues from the University of Michigan and Michigan State University Extension Program, we set out to quantify the current state of water affordability across the state of Michigan and water infrastructure funding needs. Our study estimates both the water infrastructure funding gap and the amount of subsidy that would be needed to keep the water flowing to low-income households. We also recommend a package of policy strategies, each of which are necessary to effectively and sustainably address water and sewer affordability.
Recommendations
There is no one-size-fits-all or one-time fix to Michigan’s water affordability challenges. A successful solution package that can effectively and sustainably address water and sewer affordability must be sensitive to community history and community-lived experience because poverty, race, politics, and local finance present challenges that have evolved differently in each community.
We encourage policymakers, state legislators, water utilities, and community members to work together to develop a solution package that will do the following:
Address household capacity to pay for water and sewer services in each of the following scenarios.
· Households with water service arrearages; consider one-time debt forgiveness
· Households in long-term poverty; consider discounted or income-based water and sewer services
· Households with short-term economic challenges; consider emergency funds
· Households with private wells and septic systems; consider low-cost loans or grants to support major private well and septic repair
· Households in economically vulnerable communities; consider tailored programs for these stakeholders
Prohibit water shutoffs for economically vulnerable households.
Address gaps in utility technical, managerial, engagement, and financial capacity statewide. In addition, provide mechanisms that direct funding, expertise, and capacity to the utilities and communities with the least financial stability.
Address the lack of comparable utility-level financial data (e.g., arrearages, utility debt), infrastructure data (e.g., asset management plans, inventories), and maintenance data (e.g., water shutoffs, water main repairs) statewide.
Require water utilities to implement meaningful and significant community engagement in water and sewer system planning and decision-making, including data transparency, full participation, mutual understanding, inclusive solutions, and shared responsibility for engagement.
Embrace a state role with adequate authority and resources for oversight that ensures public health protection, water quality regulation (existing and future), and appropriate water rates and provides technical, managerial, and financial support for water utilities.
By quantifying current conditions, this study provides a baseline against which progress made under future water affordability policies can be measured.
Adding to the significant body of work on water affordability needs and solutions from community groups that have been working for years, this report continues to demonstrate the urgent need for implementing a comprehensive package of state policy solutions to cover the water infrastructure funding gap and ensure that all Michiganders have consistent access to safe water. With new water infrastructure funding available through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and a new package of water affordability policies, we will be in a better position than ever to ensure nobody’s water is ever turned off due to inability to pay.
Link to University of Michigan Graham Sustainability Institute’s website.
Download a PDF of the full report here.