Flint Water Bills To Double Over Next Five Years

State regulators say that water bills in Flint, MI, are on track to double in the next five years.

A new report from the Michigan Treasury Department says bills will rise unless officials take steps to upgrade the water system and address fixed costs, according to The Detroit News.

“The estimates highlight continued concern over Flint water rates despite the city’s expected switch to the Karegnondi Water Authority, which it joined with state approval in hopes of gaining more control over long-term costs,” the report said.

Governor Rick Snyder weighed in during a Flint Water Interagency Coordinating Committee meeting: “This defined the problem. Now let’s work on the solution.”

This month, however, Flint customers will not be charged for their water. The city is making “an aggressive effort to encourage them to move more water through the system as part of a city-wide flushing effort,” The Detroit News reported. The idea is that flushing the pipes will wash out loose lead particles and coat the pipes in anti-corrosion chemicals.

Snyder dubbed May “free water month” in Flint.

“So, with respect to the water portion of the water and sewer bill, there won’t be a charge,” he said.

Flint customers paid the highest water bills in the country even while they were drinking lead-contaminated water.

Public interest group Food and Water Watch released a survey in February of the 500 largest community water systems in the U.S. The survey, which relied on U.S. EPA data, found that Flint residents paid the nation’s higher water bills.

The study looked at the annual bill for a household using 60,000 gallons of water per year. In Flint, the bill added up to $864. By contrast, the average government utility charged $316 for the same service, and the average private utility charged $500.

Earlier this year, Flint suspended billing as a result of the toxic lead scandal.

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver “suspended water billing temporarily — for about a month — while the city worked out how it would apply $30 million from the State of Michigan to help residents who paid for nearly two years for water that was unsafe to drink,” the Detroit Free Press reported in March.

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