Frequently Asked Questions

City water and sewer utilities are self-supporting and receive no tax dollars – the only funding we receive is from water and wastewater rates you pay. Your payment ensures our ability to deliver high quality, reliable water in a manner that values our environment, community, and sustains the resources entrusted to our care.

Our rates are based on the cost to purchase our high-quality drinking water from Great Lakes Water Authority and then deliver it to you. On the wastewater side, our rates are based on the cost to collect, and send it to Macomb County for treatment; ultimately returning clean water to the environment. By law, what we charge customers must equal the costs to provide the service. The City cannot generate a profit from water and sewer rates.

The City’s water and sewer rates are calculated based on the proposed expenditures for capital and operational expenses for the budget year. The use of, or replenishment of financial reserves during a given fiscal year may also influence rates. Rates are set based on estimated usage to cover the funding needs of Water and Sewer system and as noted in the previous answer the City cannot generate a profit from water and sewer rates

Our water and sewer services are a great value to our customers – about a penny per gallon. Residential monthly water and sewer bills for fiscal year 2025/26 in the City averaged $76, and were lower than 10 of the 11 others surveyed in Macomb County.

Your actual water meter is usually located in the basement. The plastic box on the outside of the house is a remote reader. This remote reader is wired to the meter in the basement. Monthly, the Department of Public Works gets meter readings via the remote, which is how we can accurately bill and is the reason why meter readers don’t knock on your door every month asking to come inside to read your water meter.

Water meters are specifically engineered to prevent accelerated readings. In fact, as they wear out they will register zero consumption which then alerts the Department of Public Works crews to contact the customer and inspect the meter for potential replacement.

Since the meter readings are obtained from the remote reader located outside the house, the potential for a misread exists if there is a problem with the hard wiring to the water meter in the basement or with the remote reading devices. Misreads are extremely rare. The letter “A” following the “Current Read” on your bill indicates an actual read. To verify the reading shown on your bill, compare it to the reading on your water meter in the basement. The reading that you take (first 4 digits reading left to right) should be greater than the “Current Read” from the bill. If you subtract the bill’s “Current Read” amount from the reading you took, it will measure the amount of water consumed since the end date of the “Service Period” also shown on the bill.

Water and sewer bills are among the lowest of household utility bills. 

• Electricity is $110
• Natural gas is $72
• Cable TV $85
• Water $76
• Internet $60

For context, here are some common water use activities and their approximate costs:

• A typical bath uses 42 gallons and costs about 40 cents
• A typical shower uses 17 gallons and costs about 10 cents
• Running the dishwasher uses six gallons and costs about 7 cents
• Flushing the toilet uses between 1.5 5 gallons and costs between 2-5 cents
• Watering the average-sized lawn every-other-day for an hour uses 32,400 gallons every three months and costs about $360, total or $4 per day
• A dripping faucet or running toilet can use the same amount of water and also cost $4 per day

The city of Sterling Heights will not shut water off for non-payment. If a current bill is not paid by the due date, a one-time late fee of 6% of the charges is added to the account. Any bills that become 179 days past due are removed from the water account and put on the property taxes with an additional 17% penalty assessed for this action.

The resident needs to determine if they are supposed to pay their bill through the date of closing or when they turn the keys over, as listed in the purchase agreement of the house. Immediately prior to that date, the resident should read the 8-digit number off the water meter (usually the meter is located in the basement of the house). Phone in the reading to water billing (586-446-2320), who will provide a bill which can be picked up and paid or faxed to the title company/realtor handling the sale. Please allow 48 hours for final bill to be prepared.

A majority of high water bills are due to toilets that are leaking. Toilet leaks are often inaudible. Other things to check for are leaks in sprinkler systems, sump pumps that have water back-up systems, and dripping faucets.

 It is important to determine and correct the problem because wasted water results in high bills. One way to check if you have a problem is to write down the eight-digit number off the water meter (usually located in the basement of the house) before you go to bed at night. The following morning, go to the water meter and compare the readings. If the meter has moved while you were sleeping, that indicates something is using water. A more immediate check involves the red dial on the water meter. When the dial is spinning, water is going through the meter. The red dial should be still when there is no water usage.

During the monthly billing period, it is impossible to expect your water bill to be identical to your neighbor’s. Simply put, peoples’ habits on water usage are different. Your neighbor may set the timer on their sprinkler system to water ten minutes less a day than you. They may have low-flow toilets in their house, which use 1.8 gallons of water per flush compared to your 3.6 gallon toilet. The water meter in your home is the actual gauge of how much water is used in the home.

The City now offers an online account portal where customers can:

• View and pay monthly water bills.
• Evaluate bills by comparing them to past usage.
• Track water usage over time.
• See how usage compares to community averages.
• Detect leaks and potential problems early with emergency notifications.
• Sign up for critical water outage and boil water advisories.
• Access special water saving tips customized based on household profiles.

Register for the WaterSmart portal HERE.

Customers paying water bills online do not have to pay any processing fee for the transaction. The credit card processing costs are absorbed by the City for water bills.

There are a number of things that could have prevented a customer from making a payment. They are listed in order of most common occurrence as follows:

• Failure to have an updated browser. Customers who have very old browsers are unable to utilize the pay online service. Using a newer version of Microsoft Internet Explorer or equivalent will solve that problem
• Having an updated browser but not having the “browser settings” for the SSL protocol. The SSL protocol setting is needed to access the pay online service
• Encountering a corporate firewall. Many customers try to pay online during the day from their work location during lunch time for example. The entity that they work for may have a corporate firewall setting that prevents them from making any payments online
• Pop-Up blocking software that you are running is preventing the opening of the additional window necessary to link to the external website. You may be able to disable the Pop-Up blocker through a setting within your browser’s own options menu

The two most important areas for customers to analyze are lawn/landscape irrigation practices and the home maintenance routines, which are aimed at preventing toilet and faucet leaks.

Tips for efficient lawn and landscape irrigation are as follows:

• To minimize evaporation, water lawns between midnight and 5 a.m. during the hottest summer months.
• Utilize sprinkler rain shutoff devices to avoid unnecessary watering.
• Review sprinkler manufacturer specifications for gallons per minute usage in order to establish irrigation guidelines within your household budget for water consumption.
• Irrigate lawns for a maximum of 20 minutes per zone every other day during drought periods and much less for landscape beds. Frequent over watering can actually be detrimental to your lawn and landscapes.
• Be observant for breaks in underground lines or sprinkler heads that may contribute to a system leak.
• Mow your grass at a height of approximately three inches or higher and use a mulching blade so that the clippings act as a natural fertilizer and also hold in moisture.
• Use a larger part of your yard for landscape beds as opposed to lawn area. Landscape beds require far less irrigation than lawns.
• Use plenty of mulch in your landscape beds to hold in moisture and plant deep-rooted flowers and shrubs that are more drought resistant.
• Follow the voluntary odd-even date watering system. Residents with odd numbered addresses are asked to water outdoors only on the odd numbered calendar dates, while homeowners with even numbered addresses should limit outdoor water use to even numbered calendar dates. Use the last number in your address to determine if you have an even or odd numbered address. Water during the non-peak hours of midnight through 5 a.m.

• Periodically inspect the flush valve and overflow valve in all the toilets. A test is done by placing a few drops of food coloring into the tank and waiting approximately 25 minutes, without flushing the toilet. If you see the food coloring seep into the bowl, a toilet leak is confirmed. Sometimes a “shimmer” on the surface of the toilet bowl water will be evident and is another way to confirm that there is a leak
• The flush valve or “flapper” located in the bottom of the toilet tank will eventually wear out and require replacement. Upon replacing the flapper, be sure to have it properly seat against the contact at the bottom of the tank
• Check the overflow valve for the correct water level in the tank by removing the tank lid and verifying that the water level is approximately one inch below the overflow valve. Always make sure that the water in the tank is not running into the overflow tube. Normally, the arm of the ball float can be adjusted in order to bring the water level to the desired height. Check the positioning of the refill tube in relation to the overflow tube to ensure that there is no siphoning effect when the tank is refilling
• During remodeling or toilet replacement consider the use of 1.8-gallon low flow toilets, which use approximately half the water per flush compared to the conventional types
• Install aerators on water faucets and showerheads
• Purchase water efficient washing machines and dishwashers and operate with only full loads
• Routinely inspect water back-up sump pumps and repair dripping faucets
• Inspect the furnace humidifier overflow valve for excessive water flow (if equipped)