Highland Park says new master meters, sewer metering could lower wholesale bills from GLWA
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Summary
Water director Damon Garrett said master meters and sewer meters give Highland Park new data to renegotiate wholesale water and sewer charges with the Great Lakes Water Authority, citing past assumed usage and litigation-driven reductions in billed volumes.
Highland Park officials said new meter installations have given the city the measurement it needs to push for lower wholesale water and sewer bills from the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA), a development the water director said could translate into lower customer charges.
"When we got to Highland Park back in '16, GLWA said that the city's water use was 3,250,000 gallons per day," Damon Garrett said. Over time the city reduced GLWA's assumed figures through litigation and measurement — to 2.11, then 1.58 gallons per day in 2023 — and now reports metered use near 950,000–1,000,000 gpd. "Now what we're asking is can we have our charges adjusted to reflect what our actual use is?" he said.
Garrett said the city has also installed 19 sewer meters (in the ground since 2022) to measure outflow and disputes GLWA's reported sewer outflow (GLWA ~5.25M gpd vs the department's ~3M gpd). Those differences drive runoff and drainage fees billed to customers, he said.
The director described a contentious billing history: an asserted $54,000,000 perceived debt that was removed in the litigation process and a state allocation the transcript cites as "$100,000,000" with about "$5,000,000" identified for master meters. Garrett said the department is negotiating formally with GLWA and hopes to formalize rate-setting changes by next June so any relief can be passed to customers during the next rate-setting cycle.
Garrett warned that while the city hopes to share savings, wholesale and rate calculations are complex. "All of those charges that come on the individualized bill are based on basically paying back GLWA for the water that we actually use," he said, adding that roughly 65% of Highland Park’s water department expense goes toward wholesale charges from GLWA.
On timing, Garrett said water-side negotiations with GLWA are ongoing and the department plans to meet before the end of the year and pursue adjustments during next year’s formal rate-setting.
The city did not announce a definitive retroactive refund for previously billed customers; Garrett said the city will seek to adjust future charges based on measured use rather than pursue wholesale reimbursements for past billing.
