ESCANABA — Escanaba city officials and C2AE engineers held a special meeting at City Hall prior to the regular city council meeting on Thursday evening to discuss the water and wastewater infrastructure projects occurring around town and the associated rate changes. The purpose was to give the public a chance to ask questions because of discontent among residents; however, only a small handful showed, and two of the three people who expressed opinions were in support of the developments.

The massive undertaking to replace water mains and service lines and connections is largely to comply with state requirements. In many instances, replacements will prevent deterioration as certain parts have outlived their life expectancies.

Some people have questioned why water rates are high when the city is situated on one of the largest freshwater bodies in the world. First of all, City Manager Jim McNeil has pointed out, Escanaba’s rates are not high compared to other communities; however, the need for revenue coming in is not for the supply of water itself, but all the other fixed costs tied to having municipal water and wastewater departments.

The bills that residents pay include a commodity fee, which varies based on usage. In the City of Escanaba, the residential rate is 1.68 cents for each gallon of water. Customers in Wells Township pay one-and-a-half times that. The rate for commercial and industrial clients is different. Obviously, since the commodity charge is tied to the amount of water consumed, the more water used, the higher the bill.

But the other cost is a meter fee, which is the fixed amount. All residential customer serviced with city water pay a flat rate that contributes towards the costs of maintaining assets like the water plant, filtration system, hydrants, valves, and providing staff on hand to tackle issues that customers may have. This is generally a larger cost than usage, McNeil said.

Over the last ten years, costs of both materials and labor have gone up in recent years because of inflation, COVID, availability of materials and labor. Project Manager Darren Pionk from C2AE said that the cost of a standard water main service from curb to house is between $13,000 and $17,000 today — pretty much triple the $5,000 estimated by the city in 2019.

Another thing that drove up prices was COVID stimulus money issued to communities.

“The stimulus made it so that it enabled a lot of communities like ours (to make infrastructure improvements), where previously they didn’t have cash on hand to do the work that needed doing,” said C2AE Design Engineer Rebecca Bender. Then, since there was a boom of communities seeking to tackle those projects all at the same time, there was a lot of competition for only so many available contractors.

“And then, because we’re receiving state and federal funds, we are obligated to have really high quality materials and comply with a couple of programs… we can’t just always go with the lowest bidder,” Bender explained.

Lampi said the grant money Escanaba has received has made the city the envy of every other municipality in the Upper Peninsula. Without those funds offsetting the work, residents would be seeing a much larger cost coming out of their pockets.

Some of the increased need of infrastructure maintenance is not just because the pipes and other parts are deteriorating with age, but also because the system was built to handle different flows decades ago, said Water and Wastewater Superintendent Jeff Lampi.

“Back in the day, the engineers designed our sanitary sewer system based off of expected flow — you know, a six-gallon flush, a three gallon shower head. Well, with today’s low-flow fixtures, the water is leaving the solids behind. It’s driving up our maintenance costs because we have to clean the sewers more often,” Lampi explained. “Sure it’s nice, we’re not using water. But we’re not Arizona, not California, and until our sewers can be designed for less flow, we’re going to have continued problems on maintenance.”

One member of the public in attendance was a young man who is considering buying a home and asked what was keeping him from digging his own well to avoid city fees. McNeil informed him that such activity was prohibited in the city, because it would hurt the good of the remaining masses if people left the system.

Though more residents may be expressing discontent around dining room tables and in online platforms, only a few individuals attended the public meeting, which was to act as not only an informational presentation but also a hearing and forum for discussion.

Two people spoke up in support of the work the city is doing to invest in the future, provide safe, clean water to its residents, and offer prompt assistance when issues arise. Both had lived in more rural township areas and said that they appreciated the quality of services provided by the City of Escanaba.

“I think you guys are doing a great job,” said one. “I don’t hear of anybody with sewage in their basement. I don’t have a worry that the water’s not going to turn on.”

The other said that the city has done a great job of communicating when and where work is going to be done, and that it was convenient to have responsive city workers.

The young man who had inquired about digging a well said that he also appreciated some of what the city was doing, but he requested that those in power not take rate increases lightly. Many people, he said, are living on incomes below the median level, and every penny counts.