CANTON TOWNSHIP, MI – Suburbanites looking to keep down their water rates are hoping an emergency manager in Detroit will have a regional impact.

Facing a 9-percent rate hike this year from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, Canton Township administrators are looking to dip into cash reserves to avoid passing the extra costs on to residents.

A hot and dry summer in 2012 resulted in greater than expected water usage revenues that could offset the rate hike, said Canton Public Works Manager Bob Belair.

And residents who say their current rates are already a burden are hoping the township board will agree to keep rates flat.

Patricia Duthie, president of Canton’s Woodbridge Estates Condominium Association said her board had to raise association fees from $250 to $275 after paying $176,000 in water bills last year for 189 units.

"We are suffering,” she said. “… And our grass died because we couldn't water it as much as we should have… We're going to have to re-sod. I feel like I'm in a hamster wheel and I'm running.”

Rising rates have been a burden on many of the 126 communities that get their drinking water from Detroit.

Flint has raised its average water and sewer rates more than 110 percent since January 2011, due largely to rate hikes from Detroit. Officials in Flint have been looking into other potential water sources.

Canton Municipal Services Director Tim Faas said studies in Metro Detroit have shown pursuit of a local alternative water source to be unfeasible.

The township is looking into building a water tower that Belair said would save some $3 million a year.

Meanwhile, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which is raising suburban customers’ rates 4 percent on average this year, is responsible for a major chunk of the $14 billion in long-term debt that has the governor looking to appoint an emergency manager in the Motor City.

(Related: Gov. Rick Snyder decides to appoint emergency manager in Detroit, says he has a top candidate)

“A big question is going to be what will be the effect of an emergency financial manager,” said Faas.

“… It’s unclear even right now how much if any oversight (over the water department) an emergency manager will have if they're appointed.”

The water department is currently under the oversight of a federal judge (who lives in Canton) and a regional authority, which has been looking to overhaul operations in a massive outsourcing move that would cut 81 percent of the department’s current staff.

Still, Faas isn’t sure that would translate into savings.

“Whether the service is provided by public employees or private employees, there's going to be a cost,” he said.

Resident Sandra Miller after a Canton meeting on water rates Monday said she hopes a Detroit emergency manager would find ways to provide relief to water bills across region.

"I really hope that brings a lot of change to the way the water department is operated," Miller said.

She said she hopes all of Southeast Michigan can be affected, "including Detroit -- you've got to feel sorry for those people, too. We're all in this together.”

(Related: What would a Detroit emergency manager do? A look at what happened in other cities)

Follow Khalil AlHajal on Twitter @DetroitKhalil or on Facebook at Detroit Khalil. He can be reached at kalhajal@mlive.com or 313-643-0527.