Water main break adding extra expenses, chores for restaurants still under boil water advisory

(WXYZ) — We are now entering day four of a boil water advisory impacting more than 100,000 people in metro Detroit and officials say it could last much longer.

This is tough news for people living and working in impacted areas.

As of Monday, August 15, 2022, the following seven communities remain under a Boil Water Advisory: the Village of Almont, Bruce Township, Burtchville Township, Imlay City, City of Rochester, Shelby Township, and Washington Township. In addition, there is also one business in Greenwood, and an industrial park in Romeo that remain under the Boil Water Advisory.

Restaurant owner Bob Stein of One Eyed Jack in Shelby Township says his staff had to go out and purchase bottled water and packaged ice to keep business going.

"We went to the store, bought a bunch of bagged ice, bottled water, bottled pop," he said.

He hoped the new chore and expense will be short-lived.

"We thought it was going to be kind of a pain for one day, we'll go to the store and buy what we need," Stein says.

But according to Suzanne Coffey the CEO of the Great Lakes Water Authority, Stein’s trips to Walmart will probably continue for two weeks as his community and six others remain under a boil water advisory.

"It wasn't like a slow leak or anything like that. It suddenly failed unexpectedly," Coffey said.

Coffey says over the weekend a pipe near Port Huron blew apart unexpectedly making thousands of people's water undrinkable.

Fixing it can take up to two weeks.

"The first week is really about the repair, the second week is about making sure the water quality is where it needs to be," she said.

Even though the new chore will be longer than anticipated, Stein remains optimistic.

"In the last two years this is probably the easiest thing we've had to deal with so I would much rather deal with this than the other things we had to deal with like being shut down or the supply chain issues we've had to deal with in the last few months," he said.