Long plagued by delinquency, the city’s water department is aiming to be one of few in the nation to give customers who use the least amount of water lower rates.

A preliminary plan calls for a tiered billing system at a lower rate for the first 1,500 gallons used per month — the minimum required to meet United Nations standards for basic hygiene and safety for a family of three. Usage beyond that would be charged at a higher rate, said Marcus Hudson, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department’s chief financial officer.

The water department has spent the last year working on the concept recommended by an expert water affordability panel in the wake of an aggressive shutoff campaign in the city that riled human rights advocates and sparked a legal battle.
The new rate structure would apply to all of DWSD’s customers from commercial to industrial, residential and government.

Very simply, we’re thinking about it in terms of low water users and high water users,” Hudson told The Detroit News.

The model — known as inclining block rates — could lower water rates for more than 90 percent of Detroit’s residential customers, according to DWSD’s preliminary analysis, Hudson said.
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