Meanwhile, down the road a little ways in Ann Arbor, the city council is trying to balance the books on the backs of the water users by shifting all sorts of funds to the Water and Sewer fund, including Forestry and a public art skim. In the above chart we are #400, but that is just water charges. We also pay ever-growing (4%increase /year for last 3 years) sanitary sewer and storm water fees. What is shown as an average annual bill of $238 is really closer to $600.
The city continues to refuse to take direct action on our own toxic mess, the Gelman Plume of 1,4 dioxane that has been creeping towards the river for 30 years. We have already closed source wells and private wells in the prohibition zone. Our most recent “leadership” on the issue has been for city council to “urge” by resolution the MDEQ to look into the issue, and lower the allowable amount of dioxane from 85 ppb to 3.5 ppb. When it does reach the river, the plan is to connect to Detroit Water so we too can pay more.
For an excellent example of data imagining by a concerned citizen check out this site: Scio Residents for Safe Water, headed by local hero Roger Rayle. To give you an idea of the size of both the fresh water flowing in our region, and the poisons it contains, under MDEQ oversight Gelman/Pall are extracting and treating at a rate of 500 gals/minute and predict it will take several hundred years to finish. So, risk-management is the MDEQ word of the day. There is no intention to clean it, at all.
