Raising The Water & Sewer Rates is Okay By Me

In Support of Increasing Water and Sewer Rates There has been quite a bit of buzz surrounding the looming increases in our water and sewer rates. As someone who lives in Lowell and owns a business on Main Street and thereby has three water and sewer bills every month, I can understand why people bristle at the thought of paying more for these services. As someone who just finished five years on the City Council, I can understand the need to raise the rates in order to help fund some very long overdue renovation to our infrastructure. 

 Julie and I made it through the total renovation on Monroe Street last year. The street was completely dug up between Main Street and the cemetery so that water and sewer pipes could be replaced in addition to repaving the road. It is important to remember that the reason Monroe was done before Washington had to do with a massive amount of rainwater/groundwater coming into the system via cracked and broken pipes which resulted in our water treatment plant processing rainwater instead of gray water or sewage. This placed an unnecessary burden on the treatment plant and was a big waste of that facilities resources. 

 As part of what was done on Monroe, the water pipes bring Lowell’s award winning water to the homes on the street were inspected for lead and other problems. The same will happen on Washington. Unless you live under a rock, you should have a pretty good idea of the threat posed by lead pipes. Flint was and is a terrible example of the dangers of just letting an aging infrastructure remain unaddressed. The threat of lead poisoning got a lot closer to home for us a few years ago. One of our grandsons was living with his folks in Grand Rapids. The finger prick test indicated the possibility of lead in his system, so he had to have blood drawn for a better analysis. Thankfully everything was okay, but it made for some very uneasy times for his extended family because we are aware of the health threats of lead in the water.

This is part of the section of pipe that was bringing
water into our house. This is what ignored infrastructure looks like.

By chance, I happened to be at home when the water line from the street to our basement was replaced. I snapped a picture of a portion of the replaced pipe. As you might guess from the amount of corrosion in the pipe, water pressure improved at our house when the new piping was installed. For me, the picture of our replaced pipe sums up why all of this expensive work must be done and done as soon as possible. The tired old line about kicking the can down the road certainly applies to not only our water and sewer lines, but the streets of Lowell as well. Infrastructure can be ignored, but only at the risk of our health and safety. 

All over the State and our nation, we can see the results of needed maintenance being put on the back burner because no one wants to pay for it. Bridges are collapsing, roads are in less than optimal condition, and the water and sewer systems everywhere have been neglected. One report I read included this “our nations public water systems face staggering public investment needs”. Any political position based on lowering taxes in the face of a crumbling infrastructure is simply out of touch with reality. This posturing is what has brought about our current conditions. 

Having lived with a well and septic, I have to tell you I much prefer paying more for the quality of water we enjoy in Lowell as well as the peace of mind that comes with knowing our waste water treatment plant is performing at its best. Am I thrilled with the coming increase in three water and sewer bills? Heck no. I can think of better things to do with my money, but on the other hand I recognize that my life and health depends on access to clean, safe water. At a recent meeting the Council was chastised for blaming the current situation on the inaction of previous councils and City Managers. With all due respect to the person behind those chastisements, the responsibility to deal with infrastructure was ignored for decades and to pretend otherwise is just silly. 

Consider the mess on Ware Road, where the City used to operate a dump. Decades ago the State of Michigan contacted City officials with a directive about this property. Nothing was done. Now the City is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to test and monitor the ground water there. I remember slicing my ankle on a broken bottle as a young man at a birthday party. It was a wound that clearly needed stitching, but I fought my mom tooth and nail because I did NOT want to go to the doctor. I wrapped my foot with more gauze – like that was going to solve the problem. After many hours passed, the wound kept bleeding and my mom finally forced me into the car. By the time they treated me in the ER they had to have two nurses hold me down while the doctor cleaned out the wound and sutured it up. Actually one of them sat on me while the other held my leg still. The doc kindly explained to me that had I come in quickly, there would have only been a fraction of the pain involved in getting treatment. When the wound was fresh, he could have easily cleaned it, numbed the area and put the stitches in with no thrashing around and screaming. 

 What does that have to do with infrastructure? Well, the longer we wait to deal with these problems, the worse they will get. The water pipes are not going to clean themselves or repair cracks on their own. Washington is basically a series of connected potholes and repairs which is to say nothing of what waits beneath the surface with the water and sewer pipes. The situation at the Ware Road dump would have been costly to address all those years ago, but not nearly as expensive as it is today because the monitoring has to continue for a few years. We need to bite the bullet and pay a little bit more for our great tasting, life giving water.