Michigan City Passes New Water And Sewer Wages Starting In 2025
The local government sets water and sewer rates which are always adjusted based on water usage, availability, grant funding, and other variables. For the most part, these are amongst the cheapest of the bills that we are required to pay to maintain our livelihoods as most of the previously stated variables work in our favor.
These are two different waste wages that are combined into one bill as both drinking water and wastewater are factored into your water utility bill each month. The City of Kalamazoo recently had its City Commission meeting and announced that some changes would be coming to water and sewage rates in the Kalamazoo Area.
The Public Service Director for the City of Kalamazoo said the main reason for the rise in costs for these utilities is to fund the replacement of over 10,000 cast iron and lead pipes throughout the city limits as some of them were over 100 years old. Although there is a rise coming to our rates, the City of Kalamazoo is said to have some of the cheapest rates in the state of Michigan.
The drinking water rate in the Kalamazoo area will rise 5% while the wastewater rate will rise a significant 12% starting in January of 2025. The focus for the change and rise in rates is to gain funding and escrow for the water and waste utility systems to be self-sufficient and ready for anything including extreme cold and summer thunderstorms.
They are hoping that the new changes will bring about a system that works with fewer problems and reduces the amount of water main breaks that we see within city limits which is currently at about 120 a year.