News

Actions

New warning for people affected by massive Oakland County water main break

Posted at 11:38 PM, Oct 27, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-27 23:38:32-04

We’re receiving reports of water pressure completely gone in Farmington Hills in the area of 14 Mile and Haggerty, just west of the Oakland County water main break.

We’re also learning of a new alert for people still under the now 5-day-old boil advisory:

Farmington Hills Mayor Pro-Tem Samantha Steckloff says the 40-year-old water main pipe failure is another sign of infrastructure neglect in metro Detroit.

“A lot of people don’t realize this, this pipe was only half way through its life. It was supposed to last 100 years,” she says. “We need to figure out what new regulations are maybe we’re not possibly thinking about population or changing in usage.”

Ever since the pipe busted Monday at 14 Mile Road it’s been a struggle to do otherwise regular daily task like cleaning counters, washing vegetables, brushing your teeth.

“Your every day things you just have to do with bottled water, says Steckloff.

And now there’s another concern for those in the areas where the boil advisory is still a go.

“We asked the city manager if we should be telling residents that we can use their dishwashers and washing machines because, of course, they’re hot - it cleans dishes it cleans your clothes, why wouldn’t it be clean?,” says Steckloff. “Well unfortunately it cant guarantee that residential units temperature get high enough to kill the bacteria that can be caused by the debris.” 

We reached out to Great Lakes Water Authority about the water pressure loss. They aren’t seeing anything on their end and referred us to Farmington Hills, who couldn't immediately be reached.