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Snyder calls for fee to pay for water infrastructure

LANSING, MI (MPRN)--   Governor Rick Snyder has called for an assessment on water bills to help pay for fixing pipes and other infrastructure. 

A plan rolled out Thursday would add a dollar every year to most water bills for five years. That would add up to an additional $5 a year after five years. It would generate an expected $110 million annually to upgrade water pipes and sewage systems.

Some systems are 100 years old, says the governor’s communications director, Ari Adler.

“We still have some water systems in this state that use wood pipes,” he says. “We have systems that when you look at the last time major work was done on them, there are notes reminding workers to feed the horses.”  

But the money raised is a small amount compared to the need, as determined by a commission appointed by the governor. That found the cost of creating a modern water system for Michigan is closer to a billion dollars a year.