Plumber Detroit: your drainage bill is charged on concrete, not on water
Detroit bills a drainage charge that has nothing to do with how much water you use. It is calculated from the hard surface on your parcel, measured from Assessor records and flyover imagery rather than from anything you told anybody. A house that stands empty with a paved yard still pays it every month. That single fact reorders what is worth doing to a Detroit property, and it is the spine of this page.
Around it sit three more things that are unusual enough to be worth knowing before you need them: a leak credit with a hard twenty eight day fuse and a one-per-year limit, a citywide alley sewer programme that fixes one specific thing and explicitly does not fix another, and a basement backup programme limited to eleven named neighbourhoods.
All of it comes from what the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department publishes. Where a figure is ours it says so. Where DWSD publishes a number with a date attached, the date is quoted with it rather than the number being passed off as current. If you want a plumber Detroit owners can brief properly, brief them with this.
The Drainage Charge
Charged on hard surface, measured from the air
DWSD states it directly: your drainage fee is based on the actual amount of hard surfaces on your property that send rainfall and snow melt into the sewer system. It pays for sewage infrastructure including wet weather treatment facilities, which DWSD says help prevent untreated sewage discharges reaching the Detroit and Rouge Rivers, and which also reduce street flooding and basement backups.
The measurement does not come from you. DWSD uses data from the City of Detroit Assessor’s Office together with flyover images to determine the impervious surface on each parcel, and that recorded area is what the charge is calculated on. There is a public DWSD Impervious Surface Viewer where you enter your address and zip code and see the parcel information DWSD holds.
Two mechanical details are published and both work in the customer’s favour. DWSD factors in an automatic adjustment to allow for a margin of error within the parcel boundary. And the calculation truncates rather than rounds: the acres of hard surface are truncated to the nearest hundredth of an acre, so DWSD’s own example of 0.047 acres appears as 0.04 acres on the bill.
Every residential parcel gets 25 per cent off on an assumption
This is the part worth reading twice. DWSD applies an automatic twenty five per cent Green Credit to residential properties, and it states the basis openly: the credit is given on the assumption that the owner has redirected downspouts to run onto the lawn instead of directly into the sewer.
The credit is automatic. It is not applied for, and it does not appear to be verified property by property. Which means a Detroit house whose downspouts still run straight into the sewer is already receiving a credit for something it is not doing, and a house that has done the work receives exactly the same credit for actually doing it.
We are not going to tell you what to conclude from that, because DWSD does not publish an enforcement position and we will not invent one. What we will say is the practical part: disconnecting downspouts from the sewer is separately and repeatedly recommended by DWSD as a basement backup measure, so the reason to do it is the flooding, not the line on the bill.
Leak Credit
Twenty eight days, one per year, sewer charge only
DWSD offers a Leak Adjustment Credit through its Customer Portal, and the rules are tight enough that most people who could use it miss it. Eligibility begins when a leak occurs in the water system on your property beyond the stopbox, the turn-on and turn-off valve in front of the house or building, where the water is metered and consumed.
The deadline is the trap. You must submit the application no later than twenty eight days after the billing statement date that first indicates the irregular water usage. That clock starts on the statement, not on the day you noticed the bill. And you may submit only one application in any rolling twelve month period, so it is a resource to spend deliberately.
You must also keep paying while it is considered, at an amount equal to the prior month’s balance, until DWSD makes its determination. If the account is delinquent or in default of a payment plan agreement, you cannot apply at all until that is resolved.
The water half is never refunded
If the application is approved, DWSD may issue an account refund or an adjustment on the sewerage charge, calculated to be consistent with your average billing statements for the Seasonal Average Review Period covering the months at issue. DWSD is explicit that all water usage remains billed at the full metered rate.
That is a meaningful limit and it should shape expectations before anybody applies. A large leak produces a large water charge and a large sewer charge. Only the second of the two is ever in play. The gallons that ran through the meter are paid for regardless of where they went.
- Proof of both the leak and the repair. DWSD names photographs, repair bills and notarised affidavits as examples, and says the list is not limited to those.
- The leak must have been resolved by the customer. An ongoing leak is not a candidate; fix it first, then apply.
- Theft, vandalism and construction damage are not covered and are stated to be the responsibility of the property owner.
- Fireline accounts are ineligible outright, which matters for commercial and multi-unit buildings with a dedicated fire service.
- DWSD reviews meter reading data and account notes alongside your documentation, so the usage pattern itself is part of the evidence.
The practical sequence follows from that list. Photograph the leak before the repair starts, photograph the repair, keep the invoice, and file inside the twenty eight days. Every one of those is easy while the work is happening and difficult a month later.
The Alley Sewer Repair Program
Detroit is spending $184 million on one specific joint
Detroit has roughly 1,800 miles of alley sewers, and every house connects to the city sewer through a private sewer service line that may run past the property line into the alley. DWSD states that age, shifting soil, intruding tree roots and lack of maintenance can leave those private lines offset or completely disconnected from the city sewer, letting soil and roots in and causing basement backups and alley cave-ins.
The Alley Sewer Repair Program is DWSD’s answer. It is a $184 million programme using $175 million of CDBG-DR grant funding to repair approximately 8,000 private sewer line connections. It is citywide, alleys are prioritised on DWSD data about cave-ins and known defects, all work is completed within the right of way, and no homeowner application is required.
Prioritisation carries a federal condition. Alleys in neighbourhoods that are more than fifty per cent low to moderate income, as defined by US Census data, and that have confirmed private sewer line connection defects or cave-ins, are being prioritised. If a block is scheduled you are notified directly with door hangers before construction.
The programme reinstates the connection. It does not repair your lateral.
This distinction is stated by DWSD and it is the single most expensive misunderstanding available to a Detroit homeowner right now.
The programme includes reinstating the private sewer line connection to the city sewer. The programme does not cover private sewer line repairs between the house and that connection. So a crew can work in your alley, restore the joint at the city end, and leave a collapsed or root-filled run under your own ground entirely untouched, because that run was never in scope.
What follows is a genuinely useful piece of timing. If your alley is scheduled, that is the moment to establish the condition of your own lateral, because you will never again have the city end freshly restored and a known good reference point at the same time. A camera survey of the private run while the alley work is in progress tells you whether you have solved the problem or merely moved the failure point closer to the house.
DWSD also separates ownership plainly across the whole system. It maintains the water distribution system including mains and service lines up to the curbstop, the valve near or at the sidewalk. The property owner is responsible for the water service line from the curbstop to inside the building and for all internal plumbing. And DWSD states the requirement when the private portion fails: hire a licensed plumber and pull the proper city permit to make the repair.
Emergencies
One number, and a system big enough to explain the wait
Water or sewer emergencies in Detroit go to 313-267-8000, or through the Improve Detroit mobile app. DWSD asks for the same number when you merely suspect a leak in your neighbourhood, on the basis that millions of gallons can be lost quickly and fast detection of a main break is critical.
The scale is worth knowing because it sets expectations. DWSD maintains 2,700 miles of water distribution pipe and 3,000 miles of sewer collection piping, and describes an aggressive preventative maintenance programme, a five year Capital Improvement Program and a field services team responsive to emergencies. It also attributes main breaks to ground movement under cold winters, spring thaws and summer heat.
On street flooding, DWSD launched a Catch Basin Inspection and Cleaning Program in 2017. The figure it publishes is that as of November 2020, crews had inspected and cleaned 30,000 catch basins out of approximately 90,000 in the city. We are quoting that with its date because that is the date DWSD attaches to it, and we have no more recent published count.
Eleven neighbourhoods, and a handbook for everybody else
DWSD frames basement flooding as three separate failure modes rather than one. Basements are under the ground where water seeps. Foundations and drain tiles that are not maintained can lead to flooding. And sewer lateral service lines carrying sewage from the home can fail and back up into the house. Those are three different repairs, and a contractor who treats them as one problem is guessing.
The City of Detroit Residential Basement Backup Protection Program is offered to homeowners in eleven Detroit neighbourhoods selected on clusters of historic basement backups and flooding reported to DWSD over the last decade. It covers owner-occupiers and landlords of occupied residential houses and duplexes. It is explicitly not offered to multi-unit dwellings including condominiums and apartments, nor to commercial property or nonprofits.
At the time this page was written, applications for Phases 1 and 2 were closed, with DWSD stating that applications will reopen if additional funding is received. That is the published position rather than a permanent one, so it is worth checking rather than assuming either way.
For everybody outside the eleven neighbourhoods, DWSD publishes a City of Detroit Basement Backup and Flood Protection Handbook and will mail a copy on request to DWSD Public Affairs. Its headline recommendations are consistent throughout: disconnect downspouts from the sewer system and, where necessary, install a backwater valve or a sump pump.
The pilot that finished in 2019, and what it tells you
DWSD ran an Unplanned Full Lead Service Line Replacement programme funded by the State of Michigan. Its logic was opportunistic in the best sense: when a crew doing other work, such as repairing a water main break on a block, discovered a lead service line running to a house, the programme funded a return visit to replace it, with the property owner or occupant’s approval. The line replaced was the pipe from the water main to the meter inside the house.
That pilot concluded in March 2019 and DWSD describes it as completed in 2019, pointing readers to its current Lead Service Line Replacement Program for present-day work. We are reporting the pilot as finished, with its dates, and we are not describing the current programme’s scope, schedule or eligibility because we did not read that page.
The transferable lesson survives the programme, though, and it is worth acting on. The cheapest moment to establish and replace a lead service line is when the ground is already open for something else. Detroit’s own state-funded pilot was built entirely on that observation. If your street is being dug for a main break, an alley sewer repair or a paving project, that is the week to ask what your service line is made of.
Six steps for a Detroit property, in order
- Open the Impervious Surface Viewer and check your own parcel.
The drainage charge is calculated from that recorded hard surface area. If you disagree with the data, DWSD provides a route to say so, and it costs nothing to look.
- Find out where your downspouts actually discharge.
The 25 per cent Green Credit is granted on the assumption they run onto the lawn. More importantly, disconnecting them is DWSD’s repeated recommendation for reducing basement backups.
- Photograph any leak before the repair begins.
The Leak Adjustment Credit requires proof of both the leak and the repair. Photographs are named by DWSD as acceptable evidence and are impossible to obtain retrospectively.
- Diarise twenty eight days from the statement date.
Not from the day you spotted it. And remember you get one application per rolling twelve months, so a small leak in March can cost you the credit on a large one in September.
- If your alley is scheduled, survey your own lateral that week.
The programme reinstates the connection to the city sewer and does not repair the private run to the house. That week is the only time you will have a known good city end to test against.
- Confirm the plumber is licensed and is pulling the permit.
DWSD states the requirement for private-side water service repairs in plain terms: hire a licensed plumber and pull the proper city permit. Both halves, not just the first.
Where the Detroit arrangements stop applying
The drainage charge, the Green Credit, the leak credit rules and the alley sewer programme are City of Detroit and DWSD arrangements. Cross the municipal boundary and none of them travel, even inside the same regional water system.
Michigan
The state hub, and the place to start for anywhere in Michigan outside the Detroit municipal boundary.
Ann Arbor
The nearest city we cover, forty odd miles west, on an entirely separate utility and permit regime.
Grand Rapids
The other Michigan city on this site, across the state and on different arrangements again.
Milwaukee
The other Great Lakes city on this site, where the private lateral is handled by a regional district rather than the city itself.
Plumbing questions people in Detroit actually ask
Answered from Detroit Water and Sewerage Department published programme, billing and maintenance pages, with the gaps left visible.
Because in Detroit the drainage charge is not driven by water use at all. DWSD calculates it from the actual hard surface on your parcel that sends rainfall and snow melt into the sewer system, measured using City of Detroit Assessor’s Office data and flyover images. That means paving, roofing area and yard surfacing are billing decisions as well as building ones, and it means a property with low water use can still carry a meaningful monthly charge.
DWSD applies an automatic 25 per cent Green Credit to residential properties. It states the basis openly: the credit is based on the assumption that the owner has redirected downspouts to run onto the lawn instead of directly into the sewer. It is automatic rather than applied for. DWSD does not publish an enforcement position and we are not going to invent one, but disconnecting downspouts is separately recommended by DWSD as a basement backup measure.
Through a Leak Adjustment Credit Application on the DWSD Customer Portal, and the timing is the hard part. You must apply no later than 28 days after the billing statement date that first indicates the irregular usage, and you may only submit one application in any rolling 12 month period. The leak must already be repaired, you need proof of both the leak and the repair, and you must keep paying at least the prior month’s balance while DWSD decides.
No. DWSD is explicit that if an application is approved, the refund or adjustment applies to the sewerage charge and that all water usage remains billed at the full metered rate. The adjustment is calculated to be consistent with your average billing statements for the Seasonal Average Review Period covering the months at issue. Leaks caused by theft, vandalism or construction damage are not covered at all, and fireline accounts are ineligible.
It will fix one end of it. DWSD states that the programme includes reinstating the private sewer line connection to the City sewer, and that it does not cover private sewer line repairs between the house and that connection. It is a $184 million programme using $175 million of CDBG-DR grant funding to repair approximately 8,000 connections across roughly 1,800 miles of alley sewer. No homeowner application is required and scheduled blocks are notified with door hangers.
DWSD maintains the water distribution system including water mains and service lines up to the curbstop, which is the turn-on and turn-off valve near or at the sidewalk. The property owner is responsible for the water service line from the curbstop to inside the home or business, and for the internal plumbing. DWSD states that if the private portion cracks or fails, the owner must hire a licensed plumber and pull the proper city permit to make the repair.
The City of Detroit Residential Basement Backup Protection Program covers homeowners in eleven Detroit neighbourhoods chosen on clusters of historic backups and flooding reported to DWSD over the last decade. It covers owner-occupiers and landlords of occupied houses and duplexes, and excludes multi-unit dwellings, condominiums, apartments, commercial property and nonprofits. Applications for Phases 1 and 2 were closed at the time of writing, with DWSD saying they will reopen if additional funding is received.
313-267-8000, or the Improve Detroit mobile app. DWSD asks for the same number if you merely suspect a leak in your neighbourhood, because fast detection of a water main break matters. For scale, DWSD maintains 2,700 miles of water distribution pipe and 3,000 miles of sewer collection piping. On street flooding, DWSD launched a Catch Basin Inspection and Cleaning Program in 2017 and published that as of November 2020 crews had cleaned 30,000 of approximately 90,000 catch basins.
Sources and what we refused to state
The hard surface basis of the drainage charge, the wet weather treatment purpose and the Detroit and Rouge River discharge point, the automatic 25 per cent residential Green Credit and the downspout assumption behind it, the Impervious Surface Viewer, the Assessor and flyover data source, the automatic margin of error adjustment and the truncation to the nearest hundredth of an acre with the 0.047 to 0.04 example all come from the DWSD drainage charge page.
The leak credit eligibility beyond the stopbox, the 28 day deadline from the statement date, the one application per rolling 12 months, the requirement to keep paying the prior month’s balance, the delinquency and payment plan bar, the photograph, repair bill and notarised affidavit examples, the theft, vandalism and construction damage exclusions, the fireline ineligibility, the sewerage-charge-only adjustment and the Seasonal Average Review Period all come from the DWSD leak credit page.
The $184 million programme value, the $175 million CDBG-DR funding, the approximately 8,000 connections, the approximately 1,800 miles of alley sewer, the right-of-way limit, the absence of a homeowner application, the door hanger notification, the more than 50 per cent low to moderate income prioritisation and the explicit statement that private sewer line repairs between the house and the connection are not covered come from the DWSD Alley Sewer Repair Program page.
The 2,700 miles of water main, 3,000 miles of sewer collection pipe, the 313-267-8000 emergency number, the Improve Detroit app, the curbstop ownership boundary, the licensed plumber and city permit requirement, and the Catch Basin Inspection and Cleaning Program with its November 2020 figure of 30,000 of approximately 90,000 come from the DWSD maintenance and emergencies page. The November 2020 date is DWSD’s own and is quoted rather than dropped, because we have no more recent published count.
The eleven neighbourhoods, the eligibility and exclusions, the closed Phase 1 and 2 applications, the three failure modes for basement flooding and the handbook come from the DWSD basement backup and flood protection page. The state-funded unplanned lead service line pilot, its opportunistic logic, the water main to meter scope and its conclusion in March 2019 come from the DWSD unplanned full lead service line replacement page.
Refused and left blank rather than estimated: the drainage rate itself, which sits on a Fiscal Year 2024 to 2025 rate card effective 1 July 2024 that we did not open; the proportion of a bill a leak credit actually returns; the names of the eleven neighbourhoods; the scope, schedule and eligibility of the current lead service line replacement programme; every city plumbing permit and inspection fee; and any current catch basin count.
No office, address, crew, response time, guarantee or coverage claim of ours is stated for Detroit, and no testimonial or performance statistic appears above. Programmes, rates and funding rounds change. Confirm current requirements with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department before relying on anything here.