Township approves waste charges for commercial

Bloomfield Township trustees unanimously approved the adoption of an industrial waste control charge that is a complete pass through charge from the Great Lakes Water Authority, at their meeting on Monday, July 23. Katie Fotherby, township public works manager, said the industrial waste control charge is assessed to all industrial and commercial business in the township that send wastewater to the Great Lakes Water Authority wastewater treatment plant, of which there are about 400 accounts. Payment is made to the Oakland County Water Resources Commission. “The IWC charges are to offset the costs incurred in administering regulatory activities under the Sewer Use Ordinance/Industrial Waste Control Ordinance as required in the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit Program and the Clean Water Act (CWA),” Fotherby explained. The 2018-2018 charges took effect July 1, 2018, with a 37 percent decrease from 2017. In addition, there is a pollutant surcharge for businesses that utilize excessive pollutants. Fotherby said the charges are used to offset the higher chemical and treatment costs for these excess pollutants in the wastewater. For this year, there is an eight percent decrease in that charge. Currently, there is only one account in Bloomfield Township that is charged the pollutant surcharge, she said.