Highland Park

A tentative deal to settle the $55 million dispute was approved Wednesday night by the Highland Park City Council. The GLWA board is expected to vote on the deal next week.

The Detroit enclave has fewer than 9,000 residents, a poverty rate around 40%, and a giant past-due bill from the state-created Great Lakes Water Authority.

Of just over $11 million in recently announced grants, the small city within Detroit's borders is getting a little more than $10 million from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. It will go toward replacing water mains and lead service lines.

Highland Park residents worry that the water debt could be placed on property taxes, potentially leading to mass foreclosures.

Highland Park faces a $24 million court judgment after not paying disputed water and sewer bills for years. The city and GLWA had been in mediation, trying to work out a plan for Highland Park to pay. Now, the two sides have struck a deal that gives them more time to do that.

A small enclave of Detroit is considering municipal bankruptcy to help rid itself of a decades-old water debt that has grown to about $20 million and threatens to swamp the already financially struggling city. Highland Park and the Great Lakes Water Authority are in court-ordered mediation over how the debt will be paid.

Highland Park's massive water bill leads to legislative moves, recovering lost musical works of a Black composer and the urgent care boom in Michigan.

The tiny, low-income city of 8,900 residents owes the Great Lakes Water Authority more than $20 million after not paying water bills for years. A $20.4 million allocation in the proposed Michigan Department of Health and Human Services budget would help the city pay it off.

Highland Park is on the hook for a $19 million bill to the Great Lakes Water Authority, plus interest. City leaders say that’s simply unaffordable for the tiny, low-income city, and the state needs to act.

Highland Park and the Great Lakes Water Authority have been battling in court for years. The city contends that it should only be paying rates agreed to in 1996, when the city of Detroit provided its water. Last year, Highland Park stopped putting water payments in escrow, supposedly because of the overcharges.