Some Michigan lawmakers are trying to get a bill package aimed at water affordability passed before the end of the year.

The legislation would create a new fund to help low-income residents avoid water shutoffs.

State Rep. Abraham Aiyash (D-Hamtramck) said the bills are a response to concerns residents share with lawmakers.

“It’s a crazy thing to think about in Michigan. Imagine that you have people right now in this winter who don’t have water to cook, clean, bathe, and just to keep their hands clean, to stay healthy,” Aiyash said during a press call Monday.

Money for the new Low-Income Water Residential Affordability Fund would come from a $2 monthly charge on retail water bills. There are provisions in the bills to potentially up that by an increment of 10% annually, to a maximum of $3 per month.

Monday, supporters of the package promoted some proposed changes they said would ensure the program would serve everyone across the state. Those changes include limiting how much water participating households could use, creating a task force to help with implementation, and ensuring the fee collected to pay for the fund would be spent regionally.

State Sen. John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs) said that’s important because residents in his northern Michigan district often fear money for these programs would be mainly spent in other parts of the state.

“Some people might be hesitant about the $2 monthly fee, but let me be clear. This small investment will generate $65 million annually. Funds that will directly benefit families and communities across our state. And the utilities that provide them with clean water. And as we’ve seen, the cost of our inaction is far greater,” Damoose said.

The bills were last heard in committee in October of last year. At the time, some real estate and small business groups opposed parts of the package that would allow renters to put water bills in their own name instead of the property owner’s.

The Apartment Association of Michigan opposed that element, arguing it could cause trouble for landlords.

“Unpaid water bills become a lien on the rental property. If a resident does not pay their bill, it is the rental property owner who will suffer this consequence. Given this, the rental property owner should have the control of water bill payment for the property,” the organization wrote in a letter to the Senate Housing and Human Service Committee.

There are only a few session days left to get the bills to the governor’s desk. Once the state Legislature adjourns for the year later this month, all bills that haven’t made it out will die and need to be reintroduced next year.

Package co-sponsor Senator Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit) said everyone understands the urgency.

“We recognize how important it is that we get this bipartisan, common-sense solution passed for the good of all Michiganders, but also because we recognize that we if we don’t pass this in a few years, we will very much be in a crisis,” she said.

The bills are not on the agenda for a second hearing during tomorrow’s meeting of the Senate Housing and Human Services Committee, where they haven’t yet been voted on.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is still on schedule to replace thousands of lead service lines by the end of the year.

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DWSD is using an artificial intelligence learning tool from BlueConduit that predicts the location of lead service lines in the city.

The department was in Pingree Park this week — a neighborhood the tool predicts has at least 70 lead lines.

Director Gary Brown says the software helps them choose which areas they should hit first to make the most impact.

“This is a neighborhood with a lot of kids. It’s a a disadvantaged community,” Brown said. “Economically, it has been ignored for a long time. So this is why we’re here and not in Rosedale Park or Palmer Woods or Sherwood Forest.”

The department is on track to replace 10,000 lines by the end of 2024.

Other headlines for Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024:

• Dearborn’s Public Health Department is working with the University of Michigan’s Environmental Law and Sustainability Clinic to review the city’s environmental policies.
• Detroit Homeowners have until Nov. 1 to apply for property tax assistance to avoid risk of foreclosure. The 2024 HOPE application deadline was moved from early December to November to give the city of Detroit Property Assessment Board time to reach applicants with incomplete submissions so they can ensure they have a fair chance at receiving the benefit. The last Healthy Home Resource Fair where residents can receive on-site HOPE application assistance is 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Perfecting Church on Detroit’s east side.
• Daybreaker and Civic Responsibility Project are hosting a dance party in New Center Park this Saturday to “get out the vote” this election season. Called the “Purple Tour,” the event will feature special guests Wanda Sykes, NFL star Tyrann Mathieu, Anthony Ramos, Dancing with the Stars Julianna Hough and more.  

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

Across the U.S., drinking water and wastewater utilities are losing experienced workers at an escalating rate. It’s part of the “silver tsunami” of baby boomer retirements.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that “silver tsunami” is just beginning to sweep across the nation.

“We’re seeing between 30 and 50% of our water workforce being eligible to retire within the next 5 to 10 years,” said Bruno Pigott, the EPA’s acting assistant administrator of water.

He was quoting from a report released six years ago by the Brookings Institution. While the data are hard to confirm, it appears the country is heading toward that projection.

An analysis by Michigan Public finds automation will replace some workers, but retirements will exceed that and lead to shortages.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects a drop in water operator jobs nationwide over the next decade as automated systems take over more tasks. Despite that, an estimated 10,000 positions will need to be filled each year to make up for people who leave these jobs to go to another industry, return to school or retire.

Finding workers interested in working in drinking water, stormwater, or wastewater systems is not always easy. Many public workers are fairly high profile. We often see police, firefighters, and teachers at work.

“But there’s a whole group, and that’s our water and wastewater professionals, that are less well known because as long as we are able to flush our toilet, as long as we’re able to ensure that when we turn on the tap, the water flows freely and is high quality, we don’t think about it,” Pigott said.

But failure to replace water workers is not like the workforce shortages we see in other areas.

“It’s not something that you can just shut off because you have a workforce shortage,” said Barb Martin, director of engineering and technical services at the American Water Works Association. Government and private water utilities are hoping to entice people to train for those jobs.

“The workforce of now, and really looking at the workforce of the future, needs to be well-skilled in digital technologies because that does seem to be the direction that the industry is heading,” Martin said, although not every position will need high tech skills.

Many water workers are on the streets, repairing water lines. In systems that still have the position, some workers read meters. Others could be billing customers or ordering chemicals to clean water or disinfect it.

In a 2024 report by the American Water Works Association, worker shortages is one of the top 10 concerns among leaders in the industry. The top concern is protecting water sources.

The water works association trains workers who have some experience already, including high-level courses for the next generation of water utility leaders. They not only have to manage the utility, but they also have to solve community problems and manage the cultural shifts that encourage community building, according to a brochure on the association’s Transformative Water Leadership Academy.

The Michigan Section of the association also regularly holds training sessions for current waterworks employees around the state to help them maintain certification or advance their skills for that next promotion.

But association members also know entry level positions need to be filled.

The Brookings report said 53% of water workers have a high school diploma or less. So they can get their foot in the door. But they’ll need on-the-job training, learning a variety of tools and technology.

There are training programs for people with no experience in waterworks.

Grand Rapids Community College won a $1 million grant from the EPA to work with the city of Grand Rapids to attract and train people. Often, they’re recruiting students from disadvantaged communities who typically are unaware of job opportunities in municipal waterworks.

The sound of hammers and drills echoed in a GRCC construction lab recently. Student carpenters and electricians were practicing on mock housing sections. But there is no waterworks lab.

“Our people are actually on site on our internship with the city of Grand Rapids and the drinking water or the wastewater treatment facilities,” said John VanElst, interim dean of the college’s School of Workforce Training.

He said a unique part of the Water Career Program is a year-long internship with a mentor on the job. Students are paired with a city employee at one of the Grand Rapids municipal plants.

VanElst said it only made sense to work with the city.

“We decided three years ago, let’s look at a grant with the EPA that just came out and write for this together with the City of Grand Rapids to see if we can help them with this retirement that they’re going to be facing and are facing right now.”

There are other elements. A student study course is provided by Bay College in Escanaba. Those online courses are needed to pass state certification tests.

VanElst said the combination of online work and on-the-job work gives students a real-world look at different kinds of jobs.

“It’s nice because they get a good idea of what they want to do right and maybe what they don’t want to do. And the best part, too, is that they have mentors along the way.”

He added they hope to soon help surrounding cities such as Wyoming, Holland, Muskegon, and others build up their water workforces.

One thing that should be noted about these jobs in the water workforce is that the jobs pay better than average. That’s especially true among the positions lower on the pay scale, according to the Brookings Institution report.