This year’s race for Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner could have state-wide implications, as incumbent Jim Nash (D) and his challenger Steve Johnson (R) present contrasting plans to lower residential water costs. 

Nash has positioned himself as a key supporter of State Sen. Stephanie Chang’s (D-Detroit) water affordability legislation. The legislation seeks to tie water bills to income, implement shutoff protections, and offer assistance for past-due bills and plumbing repairs.

Johnson, who has a corporate management and business development background, has proposed providing a base amount of water at limited or no cost and steeply increasing rates after that.

Nash may have an advantage in the race, having served as commissioner since 2013 and winning the 2020 election with 57% of the vote. However, despite his work with Sierra Club Michigan, Nash has not always had an easy relationship with environmental advocates.

In 2018, Nash, The Great Lakes Water Authority and the city of Livonia sued the state over the revised lead and copper rule, which lowered the lead “action level” from 15 parts per billion to 12 ppb, and a requirement to replace lead service lines within 20 years. Nash defended the move, telling Planet Detroit that there was little state funding available at the time and the costs for the replacements would have significantly raised bills for water customers.

Jeremy Orr, director of litigation and advocacy partnerships for the nonprofit Earthjustice, said it was hard to reconcile Nash’s background as an environmental advocate with his involvement in the lawsuit. But he acknowledged Nash’s important role in backing state water affordability legislation in Oakland County. Editor’s note: Orr is a Planet Detroit advisory board member.

“He was willing to do a complete 180 and step up as a voice from a county that historically has not been favorable to issues that deal with lower-income people,” Orr said.

Nash said he has worked on the proposed legislation since 2020, meeting with stakeholders in Pontiac and Royal Oak Township to help inform the process. Calling the plan “incredibly valuable and very popular in the long run,” he said it would make water more affordable for residents and supply local water systems with steady income.

Johnson emphasizes his water plan and PFAS action

Johnson didn’t say he would support Chang’s legislation, although he said he was “happy to look at anything to make water more affordable.”

On his website, he proposes studying a program to provide basic service to residents “at little or no cost,” with increasing charges beyond this allotment to “balance affordability with responsible water usage.”

Johnson told Planet Detroit that this could mean providing everyone an allotment of around 2,000 gallons of water a month, with those using over 3,000 to 5,000 paying “some pretty big amounts.”

Orr criticized this proposal, saying affordability advocates try to avoid any restrictions on water because it’s a life-sustaining resource necessary for hygiene and public health.

Detroit’s Lifeline Plan for water assistance encountered similar pushback after setting a limit of 4,500 gallons per month for residents to keep its fixed rate, with additional charges added when this was exceeded.

Candidates tout PFAS action, but biosolid use sends a different message

Johnson suggested that Oakland County might help fund the drinking water allotments by charging heavy water users and selling biosolids produced from sewage sludge as fertilizer, as the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewer District has done with its popular Milorganite product.

However, biosolids like Milorganite can contain potentially harmful levels of toxic PFAS chemicals. Johnson didn’t have an immediate response to the issue, saying he “wasn’t a chemistry major, so we need to find somebody who knows more about it than I do.”

Oakland County currently produces biosolids at the Clinton River Water Resource Recovery Facility. Nash said the facility sells the biosolids to a Canadian company for use in Canada and that testing showed levels for one type of PFAS, PFOS, “well within standards.” However, Nash did not provide a specific number for the amount of PFOS in the biosolids. PFAS from fertilizer can wind up in food and drinking water, and the EPA has determined that almost no level of PFOS exposure is safe.

Johnson said more needed to be done about Oakland County’s PFAS contamination, particularly for people on well water, and that help was necessary for those with aging septic systems. He said that PFAS inspections for real estate transactions are “probably ultimately a good thing to do” but that it would need to be phased in to educate the public about the practice. He supports funding to help those with failing home septic systems move onto municipal systems.

Nash defended his efforts to reduce PFAS exposure, saying his office studied PFAS in drinking water sources and found a few subdivisions and apartment complexes with contamination. These were removed from well water and connected to municipal systems. 

“We found some blooming areas of PFAS, mostly around landfills and around some industrial facilities,” Nash said. “We’re tracking them over time, and if they ever start approaching areas where there’s drinking water wells, we’ll warn folks.”

Climate action a shared goal

Nash emphasized the Water Resources Commission’s efforts to respond to the climate crisis, saying the county was working to transition operations away from fossil fuels and build more resilience into its water infrastructure.

“Climate change is the biggest thing that we’re working on,” he said.

The commission’s efforts have included building green infrastructure, such as residential rain gardens, to keep stormwater out of sewers during heavy rains and prevent basement backups.

Nash said Oakland County has also helped the Michigan Department of Transportation on a 4-mile tunnel to sequester 25 million gallons of stormwater runoff from I-75 and keep it out of the George W. Kuhn Retention Treatment Basin, preserving more of the system’s capacity during heavy rains.

In a statement to the Sierra Club, Johnson stressed the need for building green infrastructure and protecting wetlands to manage climate-related flooding. He said that as commissioner, he would pursue federal funding from sources like the Inflation Reduction Act “to enhance energy efficiency and renewable energy investment within the water management sector.”

Candidates from both parties’ emphasis on water quality and climate resilience may reflect the political landscape in Oakland County, which has become a Democratic stronghold in recent elections. However, it also shows widespread support for protecting water resources in the Great Lakes State.

“Michigan is just one of those places where water is always a top-tier issue, regardless of political affiliation,” Orr said, adding that races like this show local politicians’ power to manage water resources.

“These races become so important because you begin to realize how we protect, conserve, and distribute water is so hyperlocal,” he said.