Water and Sewer Overview

All of the water in our public watermains comes from the City of Detroit. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department has treatment plants located along its system that take water from the Detroit River and Lake Huron and treat it to make it safe to drink. The water is then distributed in large watermains throughout the metropolitan Detroit area.

The Detroit Water & Sewerage Department is a branch of the City of Detroit government serving one million City residents and three million suburban residents through wholesale arrangements with 127 communities. The Department is governed by a seven member board of commissioners whose members are appointed by the Mayor. Four commissioners by City Charter requirements represent Detroit residents. The three remaining commissioners currently represent suburban wholesale customers with appointees from Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties.

Services provided by the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department are regulated by both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and various other regulatory agencies.

Detroit Water & Sewerage Department’s water supply system is one of the largest in the nation in terms of water produced and population served. The system has been the sole provider of all water service in the City since commencement of water supply as a public service in the mid nineteenth century. In addition the system began providing wholesale service to surrounding municipalities in 1940.

The water supply system draws fresh water from the Great Lakes system which is naturally available with Lake Huron to the north, the Detroit River to the south and Lake St. Clair to the east. Detroit Water & Sewerage Department’s water network consists of 3,400 miles of transmission mains within the City of Detroit and 790 miles of transmission lines in the remaining service area. Detroit Water & Sewerage Department’s five water treatment plants pump 650 million to 1.3 billion gallons of water per day. Visit the City of Detroit website.