Lake Orion Community Schools are closed and restaurants, coffeeshops, car washes and other businesses are dealing with a crisis after a 42-inch watermain broke last week, leading to boil-water orders for parts of Auburn Hills, a few homes in Oakland Township, Orion Township and Rochester Hills.
Residents and businesses in Pontiac, Sylvan Lake and West Bloomfield have been asked to limit water usage until further notice to ease pressure on the water system while repairs are underway.
Great Lakes Water Authority is working to repair the watermain, which supplies an estimated 10,000 households in Lake Orion, but far more in terms of individual people and businesses affected. GLWA did not have a specific figure on Monday.
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Joe Zimmer, who owns two Culver’s in Lake Orion on Brown Road, shut down his restaurants on Sunday, Mother’s Day, which is one of the busiest restaurant days of the year.
“This was one of the worst Mother’s Day I’ve had in 60 years,” he said Monday. “We just heard we may be able to open a week from today, but that’s not confirmed. … I’ve been in this business a long time and have a little money saved for a rainy day, but I feel sorry for a lot of businesses that don’t. But it is what it is.”
Repairs will take an estimated two weeks — putting the timeline around Memorial Day weekend — depending on weather and other conditions.
Zimmer lives in Orion. He was lucky that some neighbors were able to bring him bottled water as he deals with the crisis, he said.
“I have great neighbors,” he said. “I’m going by what (municipal officials) are tell us to do.”
He said it makes sense to close businesses and schools for safety reasons as well.
“If you don’t have enough water, you don’t have enough for fire suppressant reasons,” he said.
Oakland Township issued a burn ban until further notice on Monday morning. Only a few households in the township that use Rochester Hills’ water system are affected by the boil-water advisory.
On Sunday, Rochester Hills officials expanded the emergency water restrictions to include all residents and businesses. At 10 a.m. Monday, city officials announced that, as expected, water pressure dropped in the northwest part of the city. The city has a booster station that helps push water to that area but it “has been kicking on and off due to the pressure fluctuations as it needs a certain amount of pressure to function,” city officials said.
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Rochester Hills’ announcement noted that “people still need to live their lives, take showers, wash dishes, and the like. We aren’t telling you to not do those essential things. We are simply asking you to do so in moderation and to not do those extra things.”
In essence, the announcement added, “be a good neighbor.”
Eliminating unnecessary water use, such as running dishwashers and washing machines, watering lawns, washing vehicles, filling outdoor pools and other recreational water uses will help preserve water pressure.
GLWA has three water distribution stations with trucks available from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. that will provide free water to impacted community members. The trucks are at:
Wildwood Amphitheater at 2700 Joslyn Court in Lake Orion.
Atwater Park at 426 Atwater Street in Lake Orion.
Auburn Hills Department of Public Works, 1500 Brown Road in Auburn Hills.
Rochester Hills plans to add a location, to be announced later today.
A gallon of water a day is the estimated amount each person needs for drinking, cooking and basic hygiene needs, according to county health officials.
“Use only what’s essential,” a GLWA spokesman said. “Anything people can do to conserve water is helpful.”=
The specific boil-water areas include Orion Township, the Village of Lake Orion, Rochester Hills and the southwest corner of Oakland Township, Auburn Hills north of Cross Creek Parkway/University Drive.
The county posted an interactive map online at https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/4e61650d2b89472bbbe2afd37e86de4f?draft=true&org=oakgov.
To safely consume water for drinking, cooking, washing dishes or brushing teeth if bottled water is unavailable: Bring all water to a boil, let it boil for one minute and cool before using. Boiling kills bacteria and other organisms in the water.
Water in plumbing and in nature typically has some bacteria, but at low levels that don’t make people ill. But more bacteria enters the system during watermain breaks or if water is left standing in plumbing systems for long periods of time. Older people, babies, pregnant people or those with immune-system disorders are more likely to be affected.
Joe Hardesty, Oakland County’s director of emergency management and Homeland Security, said the areas directly affected — Orion Township, the Village of Lake Orion, parts of Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, “there is little to no water available and any drain on the system could make it so there’s absolutely no water available.”
Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made emergency declarations on Sunday.
The emergency declaration by the communities allowed the county to request state support, Hardesty said.
That means governments responding to the crisis will document all costs related to the response, such as water purchases, fuel and overtime costs for police, fire and public works employees, to name a few categories.
“We have to document and justify what was needed and submit that to the state when this is over,” he said. “The state will determine if we’re eligible to reimbursement and if there’s money available … We understand there’s less than $1 million in the state fund. (Whitmer) is asking legislators to put more money into that fund, which is something I would support.”
He said it’s too soon to estimate the cost of responding to this emergency.
“We know that crews are working around the clock to get this fixed,” he said. “We’re supporting the communities to make sure there’s water daily … No one will go without water who will need it.”
The state has already organized public-private partnerships to increase the amount of water available to distribution sites, he said.
Anyone who is unable to get to a water distribution site should contact their municipality or call the county’s Helpline (formerly Nurse on Call) at (800) 848-5533 so a delivery can be organized.
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