Ypsi City Council passes water rate increase

By Jim Cavanaugh
Aug. 20, 2009    ·    8:58 a.m.

Property owners in Ypsilanti could soon face slightly increased water bills. 

City council passed an ordinance on the first reading Tuesday night that calls for a 5.5 percent increase for water usage in the city. That vote passed 5-1, with Mayor Pro tem Trudy Swanson-Winston, D—Ward 1, the only ‘no’ vote. 

Although residents face a 5.5 percent increase, council also passed a 2 percent decrease in water surcharge rates.  

“This is the result of increase in surcharge revenue from the rate increase as well as savings from recent bond refunding efforts,” said Larry Thomas, executive director of the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority. “The decrease in the surcharge will moderate the effect of the rate increase on the YCUA City Division users.” 

The surcharge assessed by the YCUA does not actually pay for water. Instead, it covers infrastructure and debt-related costs. 

The rate increase, combined with the surcharge decrease, amounts to a total increase of 1.4 percent on each customer’s bi-monthly water bill.  Sewer rates were not increased.  

According to Thomas, an average user will see their bill increase by $1.77. A minimal user faces an increase of 92 cents.   

Thomas listed two reasons for the increase in rates—an increase in the cost of benefits for YCUA retirees and a 9.6 percent rate increase by YCUA’s water provider, the City of Detroit. 

YCUA purchases water from Detroit to provide for its customers and has done so since the 1990s. Right before the purchase agreement with Detroit, the city discovered that many of its wells had been contaminated, largely by a chemical called vinyl chloride, most often found in plastics. 

“The most likely source was the old city landfill,” Thomas said of the contaminants.  “More than likely the water going into our wells was flowing underneath that old landfill.” 

Vinyl chloride has been classified as a carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency and is known to cause a rare form of liver cancer. 

Council Member Pete Murdock, D—Ward 3, who served on city council when the city still pumped its own water, remarked that the water in city wells were also becoming increasingly brackish before YCUA started buying water from Detroit. 

“It was getting saltier and saltier,” Murdock said.

Although the ordinance passed, not all were pleased with the rate increase being passed along to customers.  Swanson argued that the city should not have to pay for the increased cost of retiree benefits. 

“Our water usage is getting to be very expensive,” Swanson said, adding that the increase was “a bit hard to swallow.” 

Council Member Michael Bodary, D—Ward 2, inquired as to when YCUA last went looking for another water provider.  Thomas told him there was no other viable provider in the area.