For Immediate Release Contact: Rob Macomber

September 27, 2010 rmacomber@sterlingcorporation.com

517.267.9012

HEISE ANNOUNCES PLAN FOR REGIONAL AUTHORITY AND

PRIVITIZATION OF DETROIT WATER AND SEWER SYSTEM
Plymouth, MI: Kurt Heise, Republican candidate for the open 20TH District House seat in Plymouth,
Northville, eastern Canton & Wayne, is proposing a plan for the regional control and eventual
privatization of the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department (DWSD).

Heise says his plan would lead to cost-savings, efficiencies , greater accountability and transparency for
suburban customers.

Heise, the former Director of the Wayne County Department of Environment, has over 16 years of
expertise in the policy, legal and legislative history of the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department, and
represented Wayne County in the 2008 settlement of a 30-year-old DWSD lawsuit before Federal
District Judge John Feikens.

He is currently a municipal attorney, consultant, and adjunct professor at UM-Dearborn and Wayne
State University, teaching environmental politics and policy of Southeast Michigan.

“If elected November, I will commit to a bi-partisan plan to create a new regional water and sewer
authority for Southeast Michigan,” Heise said, “We can reduce our water and sewer rates by making the
system smaller, more efficient, and financially secure by putting the customers in charge.”

Heise noted the ongoing FBI investigation into DWSD contracting, the resignation of the DWSD Director
and other key staff with no permanent replacements, recent revelations of DWSD’s multi-million-dollar
land purchase along the Detroit River, the Synagro sewerage sludge scandal, and recent violations
against DWSD from the State of Michigan for illegal sewerage discharges into the Detroit River.

“In the summer of 2008, Judge Feikens issued an Opinion expressing his concerns with the institutional,
managerial, and financial problems impacting DWSD,” Heise said, “this was a warning to the City, but
it’s gotten lost among Detroit’s other challenges. I applaud Mayor Bing for his efforts to turn the City
around, but DWSD is a problem that we can take off his desk.”

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Paid for by the Committee to Elect Kurt Heise, P.O. Box 702012, Plymouth, MI 48170
If elected, Heise plans to introduce a bill creating the “Southeast Michigan Water Quality Authority”
featuring:

1. An Authority comprised of suburban customers and the City of Detroit for the
regional management and operation of the region’s water and sewer system;

2. Elimination of the DWSD’s Board of Water Commissioners and Detroit City

Council control of DWSD;

3. Retain ownership of DWSD assets (facilities, pipes, sewer lines) by Detroit;

4. Amend State Law for the long-term refinancing of many current and future
water and sewer projects;

5. Creation of an Executive Committee comprised of Mayors and Township

Supervisors representing water and/or sewer customers of the system;

6. Allow for the hiring of a private company to operate the water and sewer
system as a regional public utility.

“My plan would keep ownership of the system with the people of Detroit, but would transfer decision
making to a regional board elected by the community customers of which Detroit would be a member,”
Heise said, “State law would also be amended to allow the new Authority to refinance existing and
future improvements, saving hundreds of millions of dollars that could stabilize water bills and provide
new investment for infrastructure repair both in Detroit and the suburbs.”

“The Authority would be able to hire and fire staff, bring in a private operator, bid out and approve all
contracts, set water and sewer rates, and improve the integrity of the water and sewer system for public
health, safety, and environmental protection,” Heise added. “I have a unique perspective on these
issues, and if I serve in Lansing, I owe it to my constituents to tackle this issue as part of my plan to help
Rick Snyder reinvent Michigan and improve accountability and transparency in government.”

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Paid for by the Committee to Elect Kurt Heise, P.O. Box 702012, Plymouth, MI 48170