Township water, sewer rate hikes approved

By Dana Casadei

A slight increase in Bloomfield Township water and sewer rates were approved by the Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees on Monday, April 14.

The rates for 2025-2026 will increase rates by two percent for sewer and four percent for water – the same amount as last year – and will be first applied to billing at the end of April, retroactively going into effect on April 1.

While there are increases this year, Bloomfield Township residents pay an often higher rate compared to others in nearby communities because of size, scale and scope of the system. Since Bloomfield Township’s size is spread out, there are fewer people on the system paying into each pipe. Fewer people paying into each pipe equals higher costs when comparing it to say, Birmingham, whose system is one-third the length of Bloomfield Township system.

Bloomfield Township distributes water provided by the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) through the South Oakland County Water Authority (SOCWA), and sewer being provided by the Oakland County Water Resource Commissioner (OCWRC).

The original rate increases proposed from the GLWA were 10 percent for water and six percent for sewer rates from OCWRC

“I appreciate everything you’ve done and that your team has done to really bring the rates down as much as you can considering where Great Lakes started at,” said trustee Neal Barnett. “You’ve used your due diligence to bring rates down, and make it as far as possible to our customers and residents, and at the same time making sure that we are contributing to the overall capital improvements and having assets there. We don’t want to go through what some of the other communities have gone through, where they have water issues, multiple breaks… so I commend you for all you and your team have done.”

The township owns, operates and maintains over five hundred miles of buried water main and sanitary sewer lines. Currently, the meter equivalency unit (MEU) structure is being used in the township, which allows for billing of fixed fees based on the potential draw of the system that is determined by meter size. There’s talk that this will change to a tiered rate system after more data is collected within the next year from the meter program.

Another aspect of this approval was the change in modifying the MEU for 1.5 inch service lines and grouping those customers with the one inch service customers, in terms of fixed fee charges.

Bloomfield Township customers with 1.5 inch service lines are mostly residential, something that’s very uncommon when compared to communities, such as Livonia, where there are zero residential 1.5 inch service lines.


Since there are so few who would be impacted by this change, both residential and commercial customers with the 1.5 inch service lines will be moved to one inch with this plan.


Officials said the $300,000 that will be lost by combining them will be covered out of cash reserves. Then next year the township will do a full rate study to further determine if the MEU structure needs to be continued, and what the future looks like for water and sewer rates in the township.


“Thank you for finding a way to smooth out those rate increases so we’re not seeing those huge increases like other communities are seeing because they don’t have the capability like we do to smooth out those rates,” said trustee Chris Kolinski. “Ten and six percent increases are being passed along to other customers in our area and we’ve been able to do that. So, thank you for that, I appreciate it.”


Trustees voted 6-1 in favor of the 2025-2026 water and sewer rates, with trustee Mark Antakli being the lone nay vote.