Township okays industrial waste control charges

By Dana Casadei

The annual industrial waste control (IWC) charges for 2024 were approved at the Monday, June 24, Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees meeting.

Adam Roose, public works manager for the township, said that these charges will go into effective on Monday, July 1, and will reflect a two percent increase from last year for only commercial accounts, not residents.

IWC charges are based on the size of the water meter used, ranging from quarterly prices of $11.16 for meters set at five-eighth inches to $1,562.40 for 18-inch meters.

Set to offset the costs incurred in administering regulatory activities under the Sewer Use Ordinance/Industrial Waste Control Ordinance, the IWC charges are required in the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit Program and the Clean Water Act (CWA).

These charges are assessed to all commercial and industrial customers who send wastewater to the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) treatment plant from Bloomfield Township.

Out of the 13,000 total sewer customers in Bloomfield Township, these charges are only levied on approximately 400 commercial accounts. There are zero administrative fees applied.

Commercial and industrial customers are sometimes asked to pay pollutant surcharges too, but only if they discharge high-strength wastewater into the system that has compatible pollutant levels higher than what is allowed for domestic sources. Those charges are used to offset treatment costs for the excess pollutants in the wastewater. 

At this time, Bloomfield Township does not have any customers who are required to pay the pollutant surcharge.

Both of these charges are set as straight pass through costs paid to the GLWA through the Oakland County Water Resources Commission (OCWRC).

The board of trustees voted 7-0 in approval of these charges.