By Anne Snabes, asnabes@detroitnews.com
The Great Lakes Water Authority is proposing a 6.83% rate hike for its water system and a 5.98% increase for its sewer system on average in fiscal year 2027, an almost 1 percentage point rise for water and a nearly 1.5 percentage point boost for sewers compared with last year’s increases.
The regional water system, which serves 112 communities across eight counties in southeast Michigan, said in a Jan. 13 letter to its member communities that an increase in infrastructure needs, a decrease in investment earnings and other factors are driving higher prices for water and sewer services.
“The Great Lakes Water Authority’s (GLWA) proposed water and wastewater system charges for the upcoming fiscal year reflect the continued need to responsibly invest in an aging regional infrastructure system that serves nearly half of Michigan’s population,” said Nicolette Bateson, GLWA’s chief financial officer and treasurer, in a statement.
Last year, the authority proposed increasing its wholesale water rates by an average of 7.73% and 5.39% for sewer rates for the 2026 fiscal year, which began July 1. But the GLWA Board of Directors bowed to public pressure at a late February meeting and reduced the increases, approving a 5.9% hike for water and a 4.5% rise for sewers.
Those approved rate hikes remained much higher than the approved increases of 3.25% for water and 3% for wastewater services from the year before. Water and sewer rate increases had been capped at 4% or under since the regional authority’s creation more than a decade ago, but the cap ended on June 30, 2025.
Suzanne Coffey, the chief executive officer of the Great Lakes Water Authority, said in the letter that the public hearing on both its budget and rate charges is scheduled for Feb. 25, following further review by its Audit Committee and Board of Directors.
The proposed 2027 fiscal year rates are “more reasonable” than last year’s, Utica Mayor Gus Calandrino said.
“I understand that we have an aging system, … and we have to invest in the system, make improvements, make repairs, but these perpetual increases are just not sustainable,” Calandrino said.
The mayor said many of the Macomb County community’s residents are low-income or on fixed incomes, and their incomes aren’t increasing at the same rate as the water charges.
But Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash supported the proposed increases as the cost of ensuring long-delay improvements and repairs are made.
“The cause of this increase in rates last year, this year and likely in the future can’t be negotiated down,” Nash wrote in a text. “There is a backlog of needed infrastructure repairs and improvements that have not been fulfilled for some years. The true cost of service must always be paid, or we will end up having a large price to pay when things start failing when they could’ve been repaired early.”
Infrastructure needs are partly driving the increases, Coffey stated in the letter. During last year’s deliberations, GLWA officials had justified the proposed increases as being needed to finance long-overdue capital improvements and rapidly escalating costs of items, such as chemicals.
Authority explains reasoning
In December, the authority presented a strategy based on a detailed condition assessment performed over the past few years.
“Knowing that despite considerable investment to date, the water transmission system needs continue to grow,” Coffey said in the letter. “For this reason, we have developed a well-defined roadmap to optimize further investment in our linear assets. While age is a factor (83.6 miles presently exceed their useful life), so are the types of pipe, likelihood of failure, and consequence of failure.”
The pace of rehabilitation projects at its wastewater treatment plant has “been advanced,” Coffey said. That’s largely due to the fact that GLWA successfully secured low-interest state revolving fund loans and grant funding, she said.
During the past few years, the economy “was good” for the authority’s professionally managed investment portfolio, Coffey said. Significant investment earnings during that time enabled the authority to keep rate increases lower, she said. But the earnings for the investment portfolio dropped in the past year.
Coffey also cited other factors driving the charge increases, including the fact that water consumption “continues to drop.” Bateson said operating expenses are also behind the increases.
Requests for budget and charge increases are “never presented lightly,” the chief financial officer said.
“Our increases are based on multiple long-term planning scenarios, strategy development, internal reviews, and discussions with our customers and Board of Directors,” Bateson said.
Affordability vs. reliability
The GLWA CEO said the regional water system must remain focused on affordability.
“We know that this financial burden cannot be placed entirely on (municipalities) and the households and businesses they serve across our region,” Coffey said.
“We are actively seeking other long-term funding solutions to help address the failures of aging infrastructure that can disrupt daily life, the growing need to protect people and property from the impacts of intense weather events, and the regulatory requirements created by ever-evolving environmental concerns.”
During the 2025 public rate-setting meeting, dozens of Metro Detroit residents passionately pleaded with the six-member GLWA board against boosting the rates. They argued they were already burdened by rising prices for the basics of living, and the proposed hikes would add to the load.
“I implore you, the Great Lakes Water Authority: Stop doing these increases on these residents ― on people who are already financially strapped,” Detroit resident Rochella Stewart said on Zoom at the Feb. 25, 2025, meeting.
Nash, the Oakland County water commissioner, said the 4% rate increase cap had contributed to a pent-up demand for repairs and eventual higher rate hikes. The promise was made “after years of often double-digit increases,” he said.
During the decade-long cap, most annual increases were well below 4%, averaging about a 2% annual increase, including one year when there was no increase, the water commissioner said.
“That’s good for the rate payers short term, but that forced needed repairs to be put off. Those are starting to be put in the budgets now, and that’s important to continue,” Nash said.
“The old infrastructure that they are replacing also needs to be made larger in many cases because of the impact climate change is bringing, extreme weather that delivers much more rain in a storm,” he continued.
The work and the rate hikes must be done to ensure the region doesn’t endure more water main breaks, such as the one in Novi in 2025, Farmington Hills in recent years and in Detroit last year, which left 2-foot-thick ice in the streets, Nash said.
“If we want to have a safe water, sewer and stormwater system that is effective, efficient and built to last,” he said, “we have to make the investments.”
