Empty heading

Do you see our Water and Sewer vehicles in your neighborhood?

Often when you see Northville Township Water and Sewer vehicles, we are out in the community performing jobs such as upgrades to meter equipment, scouting for water-related issues, customer service or water and sewer line maintenance.  

We conduct meter reading in the months of January, March, May, July, September and November.  

Do you see flags in your yard or neighborhood? 

These colored flags mark utilities, part of the Michigan MISS Dig program.

Why does my water look cloudy?

Drinking water can sometimes appear cloudy or 'milky' when first drawn from the faucet. This is caused by air bubbles in the water. Water in our water mains is pressurized, as it needs to travel a distance to your home. Water under pressure holds more air than water that is not pressurized. Once water comes out of your faucet, the water is no longer under pressure and air rises to the top in the form of bubbles to be released. Tiny air bubbles will rise to the surface and the cloudy appearance will disappear.  

A simple test to make sure that the cloudiness is air, fill a glass and let the water glass stand untouched for a few minutes. If the cloudiness clears from the bottom of the glass upwards, the cloudiness was caused by air. 

Storm Drains and Catch Basins

If you have a drain on your street or in the easement of your property, please clear drains of ice, leaves and other debris. Clogged drains can create water ponding and other drainage issues this time of year.

Sewer Cleaning

Our Northville Township Water and Sewer personnel will be performing sewer main cleaning from spring to fall. The sanitary sewer lines are cleaned using high performance sewer cleaning equipment. A cleaning nozzle is propelled from one manhole to the next using water under high pressure. The nozzle is then pulled back to the starting manhole. As the nozzle is pulled back, water scours the inside of the sanitary sewer pipe. Any debris in the pipe is pulled back with the water. The debris is removed from the manhole with a vacuum unit. During cleaning of sanitary sewer lines, air occasionally vents into a home through the sanitary sewer service line and ventilation system. When this happens, water in the toilet bowl can bubble or surge or, in rare instances, splash out of the bowl. We remind you that the water that could come from this type of incident is from the bowl itself. Therefore, during the scheduled cleaning period, it would be beneficial to make sure to keep the lid of your toilet bowl down to minimize the water splashing from your toilet.

Common Area Irrigation Systems - Deactivating Water for Fall Season

For Common Area Irrigation Systems: Our Department will be turning off water at curb boxes for common area irrigation meters on Saturday, October 12, 2024. If you prefer to have your system turned off prior to or after October 12, please call our office at (248) 348-5819 to schedule an appointment date. 

Failure to properly winterize the irrigation system could be costly and inconvenient to you.  Northville Township highly recommends that your homeowners association or designated contractor remove the water meter and store for the winter.  This prevents any trapped water in the meter or pipe assembly from freezing and breaking the meter.

Northville Township DPW will be assessing the conditions of meter assemblies during this process. If your meter site needs corrections to the irrigation assembly to protect our water supply, you will be supplied with detailed information. All modifications outlined must be completed before the curb box water activation is performed in Spring of 2025.