The state House has passed a bill to try to help drain commissioners keep water from flooding roadways, land, and buildings.
Evan Pratt is president of the Michigan Association of County Drain Commissioners. He said right now, drain commissioners can only assess up to $5,000 per mile of drain for maintenance.
He said it's not enough, especially since so many people now live in what used to be countryside.
"It's more expensive to do work on pipes that are under pavement or in people's backyard than it is on an open ditch through a farmer's field," he said.
The bill increases the maintenance assessment to up to $10,000 per mile. Pratt said in rural areas, that increased amount might mean more frequent clearing of trees from ditches, so water doesn't back up and cause flooding.
In villages, the extra money could fund small repairs.
"Let's say there's an intersection, and two of the drainage structures that help drain this intersection at the bottom of a hill just need to be rebuilt, that might allow us to do that level of work and put the pavement back down."
Pratt warns that drain maintenance is just a tiny fraction of the state's problems when it comes to investing in its deteriorating water infrastructure.
In an email following his recorded interview with Michigan Public, Pratt said the price tag for addressing repairs or removals to meet modern design and safety standards for more than 2,500 dams in the state was about $900 million as of 2023, according to the Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO).
"I am a lot more worried about lack of action on the package of dam safety legislation introduced back then than I am about the $10k maintenance limit," he said. "But we have to take our baby steps wherever we can."
The drain maintenance bill now goes to the state Senate.
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