BY STEVE NEAVLING
DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER


An ambitious four-year plan to upgrade water meters in the roughly 250,000 houses and businesses in Detroit is facing a flood of resistance from residents.

By year's end, the city is hoping to install upgraded water meters that are more accurate and efficient than past ones.

But nearly a third of Detroit homeowners -- about 60,000 -- continue to ignore letters and knocks from the city's Water and Sewerage Department and are now facing penalties of up to $30 a month, city officials told the Free Press last week.

"It can be very hard to reach people," said Terry Craig, a water meter foreman who has knocked on countless doors in the past three years to install the meters. "It can be frustrating, but you keep going out and get as many meters installed as possible."

Since the deadline to install new meters passed for the vast majority of Detroit at the end of 2010, teams of city water workers are now knocking on doors but are finding many residents who are defiant or not home.


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