Utilities Gouging?

[Dumpling]

I went to a community meeting at a neighborhood church sometime last March.
A church parishioner alerted me to the fact that there was a sewer in front of the
church that was totally blocked. This caused an ice rink in front of the church -
not good for weddings or funerals. Could I do anything about it? Well, I would try.
Apparently someone from the church had contacted DWSD earlier and nothing
happened. I called the repair number. There will be a repair order number for
any pending repair job. DWSD had none on file for this church, so I requested a repair
for the sewer. The sewer was located on a cross street, not the church's address
street, so I thought it was very possible that repair persons had come out and checked
the church's address street and found all of the sewers there to be okay, so I
specifically mentioned that the sewer needing attention was on the cross street.

[Dumpling]

Holy Week came and went with no repair. A month passed with no repair. I called,
and the work order number was still in the system. Sometime during the next month
there was a water main break in the neighborhood that was fixed within three days.
I believe that there were two contractor firms as well as DWSD staff working on the
water and sewerage systems at that time - it was a severe winter for them.
By the end of the second month the church sewer was fixed. That was your DWSD
money at work.

[DetroitPlanner]

I went to a community meeting at a neighborhood church sometime last March.
A church parishioner alerted me to the fact that there was a sewer in front of the
church that was totally blocked. This caused an ice rink in front of the church -
not good for weddings or funerals. Could I do anything about it? Well, I would try.
Apparently someone from the church had contacted DWSD earlier and nothing
happened. I called the repair number. There will be a repair order number for
any pending repair job. DWSD had none on file for this church, so I requested a repair
for the sewer. The sewer was located on a cross street, not the church's address
street, so I thought it was very possible that repair persons had come out and checked
the church's address street and found all of the sewers there to be okay, so I
specifically mentioned that the sewer needing attention was on the cross street.

DWSD does not control the catch basins. Those are storm drains and are DPW jurisdiction.

[Dumpling]

I'm not convinced of that. The repair number that I called was the one on my
DWSD bill. It certainly may be that DPW does some catch basin cleanout, but
it is also true that DWSD has a fleet of Vac-Alls [[these are the big trucks with
the elephant like tubes on the front) for cleaning out sewers as well. To be sure,
I did not see who came out and took care of the church sewer. I couldn't tell
you if it was DPW, DWSD, or a contractor.

[Willi]

Apparently the City of Warren has 2 unique crews for the neighborhoods.
a.) One strictly for Storm Water Drain Pipes and Grates cleaning work
[[Vactor Truck plus Department Public Works in White Truck)
b.) One strictly for doing the manhole sanitary sewer drain piping maintenance
[[Vactor Truck plus City of Warren in Blue Truck)
The guys in the WHITE truck knew absolutely nothing about what the guys
in the BLUE truck had done at that exact same spot. No communication between the 2 teams.

[poobert]

I dont understand people's outrage over their water bills. $40. That's something to bitch about? And blame on "corruption and the huge number of people who don't pay"? Really? How much is your cell phone bill? How about the monthly cable / internet charge? How much does it cost to fill the car with gas? Heaven forbid you drive a truck.

We need water. And I very much appreciate receiving clean water [[especially considering the condition DSWD gets it back in). $40. I'll pay it. Gladly.

I'm glad you have $40 to piss about, but I don't; I wasn't born with a silver spoon. Some of us are watching every dime. Don't drive a truck and don't have a TV, either.

[Wesley Mouch]

I dont understand people's outrage over their water bills. $40. That's something to bitch about? And blame on "corruption and the huge number of people who don't pay"? Really? How much is your cell phone bill? How about the monthly cable / internet charge? How much does it cost to fill the car with gas? Heaven forbid you drive a truck.

We need water. And I very much appreciate receiving clean water [[especially considering the condition DSWD gets it back in). $40. I'll pay it. Gladly.

No problem with $40.00 per month. Seems quite reasonble.

But if you remove the waste, maybe the bill would have been $30.00 a month. That would save Detroit residents $120 a year. Do you think this money is better spent on waste and unnecessary staff, or would be better in the pockets of Detroit residents?

[Zacha341]

Oh really, eh I'm not greedy I just want half before you get into the wind -- I think I deserve a bit of something, sompin'......!

Not always. Unbeknownst to me, I had a distant relative in Nairobi die and leave me $1.8 mil. All I had to do was pay the Estate Executor of the Peoples Bank of Nairobi a $1700 transfer fee, and the money was mine. I gave them my bank account #, so as soon as the money gets transferred, I'm out of here.....

[SWMAP]

A DWSD vactor truck came and vacuumed up the car keys that I accidentally dropped into the catch basin in front of my house. A neighbor told me to try DWSD and my expensive keys were saved - but it took about a week. It's not like they just can give them to you. The truck tanks have to be emptied somewhere. It was excellent customer service. Certainly exceeded my expectation.

[Dan Wesson]

My electric and water bills have increased rather dramatically over the past few months. In particular, my DWSD bill went up around 50%. Electric is pretty bad as well. I've spent less and less time at home as a result of military obligation and I also don't own a television or water my lawn or any silly business like that so it would be impossible for my actual usage to increase. I think the local evil monopolies/trusts [[DWSD and DTE) are scamming me and I would like to destroy them. Any input in your experiences or how to go about seeking retribution from them or otherwise dealing them punishment is appreciated.

Another angle to consider is the value of your dollar, due to inflation, is going down the drain so to speak.

[Gpwrangler]

I dont understand people's outrage over their water bills. $40. That's something to bitch about? And blame on "corruption and the huge number of people who don't pay"? Really? How much is your cell phone bill? How about the monthly cable / internet charge? How much does it cost to fill the car with gas? Heaven forbid you drive a truck.

We need water. And I very much appreciate receiving clean water [[especially considering the condition DSWD gets it back in). $40. I'll pay it. Gladly.

$40? I wish mine was that low. Still a good value though.

[Dumpling]

Let's see if this will link to an informative video provided by the DWSD public
affairs office:

http://www.dwsd.org/pages_n/video_2.html

In a nutshell, metro Detroit suffered from population loss and unemployment over the
last ten years, so there are fewer DWSD accounts. Furthermore water sales are also down lately because we have had enough rain for the grass. Neither the payments on the bonds
nor the labor costs came down proportionately, so water rates went up and up some more.
In 2012 Director Sue McCormick, hired by Dave Bing [[for those that are wondering if he did anything as mayor) brought in EMA consulting, and a good many "Pilot Process Optimization Units" were set up by them throughout the DWSD organization. A major focus was reducing
staffing through attrition. Each unit tended to have enough volunteers to completely review and rework any given process, and in many cases improvements were made. [[No, I won't
press that literary work "Who Moved My Cheese" on you all about this).

[corktownyuppie]

[QUOTE=thoro;452914]

Let's suspend the evil conspiracy talk until you rule out usage issues. I know that rates have not gone up by 50% in the last few months, so the key is finding out where the usage numbers are coming from. We can always go back to taking out the ISIS/DTE/Al-Qaeda/DWSD syndicate afterwards.

Have you compared the usage numbers billed from month-to-month? What do they read? DTE now has an app for your smartphone where you can monitor energy usage in real-time. If you download it you will be able to se

My water bill 5 years ago was in the $28 range, now it is $39.84. THAT is the minimum. I blame the corruption within the department AND the huge number of people who simply do not pay their water bill.

I am a vocal critic of the mismanagement and waste at DWSD. But there is a difference between your problem [[an increase of about 10% per year over 5 years) and the OP, who claims the bill went up by 50% in 3 months [[an increase of about 200% per year).

[Willi]

It ALL depending on your specific community and how it gets water

-- average resident in Flint pays $140 per month,
-- average resident Montrose water and sewer rates at $104.65 a month
-- """"""""""""""""" Linden at $100.93.
-- """"""""""""""""" Beecher is $52.88
-- """""""""""""""""" Burton at $57.46.

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/inde.../post_386.html

The 12 communities in the 12TownsDrain District aka Kuhn Retention Basin
MUST pay the bond for the construction of underground Red Run stormwater basin.
The original facility was built in 1972, that jacked up their residents
sewer/water costs for years to come, as it was expanded in 2006.

I live in Warren , and pay around $25 to $30 a month; total combined sewer/water .
BUT Warren is unique as it has its own Water Treatment Plant, many cities do not have one.

Your clean drinking water may come far, far away .....................