By Chris Hagan
Review Staff Writer
In recent months, it’s been abundantly clear that the topic of water in the state of Michigan is at the front of people’s minds.
Although Flint is experiencing issues far different, local residents have shown continued concern over the Village of Lake Orion’s water pressure issue. Following last Monday’s village council meeting, it was apparent that previous communication, regarding the water distribution system, was as weak as the system itself.
Over two decades, various village personnel including managers, presidents, and DPW directors were aware of the low pressure issues but failed to communicate concerns and develop a plan for repair. But since the house fire on Sheron in November, it’s evident that there’s been more action and investigation into the village’s water system than anything documented before.
‘The buck stops here. With us,? was a phrase repeated several times recently during the meeting by various township board members.
Water Quality
As village residents were reassured the communication breakdown was fixed, there’s new concerns on whether the village should have issued boil water alerts (BWA) during water main repairs.
Two weeks ago, the system endured its most recent water main break near 222 Heights Road. During the repair, many residents living in the area of Lakeview, Algene, Recreation and Brittain reported they had lost all water pressure. That loss of pressure could’ve been grounds for issuing a boil water alert.
According to the Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance (ODWMA) there’s a ten page policy and procedure packet that outlines the steps that need to be taken if or when to issue a BWA.
In Section 3, Interruptions in Service, it talks about BWA’s as they relate to water main breaks:
‘If a water main break results in a complete loss of pressure before, during, or after the repair is made, a BWA (boil water alert) must be issued to all customers in the affected area. The BWA should remain in effect until the area is flushed, chlorine residuals are reestablished (if applicable), and sample results do not detect coliform bacteria.?
Just a page earlier in the same ODWMA section, it further describes that a complete loss of pressure, which is anything below 5 psi, in the distribution system must result in a BWA being issued to all water customers in the impacted area. After pressure is restored and the system recovers, the affected area should be thoroughly flushed and coliform samples must be taken throughout the area to determine if the distribution system remains free of coliform (bacteria) contamination.
BWA’s were not issued for the water main break on Heights Road nor were they issued for the breaks on Mariday or Bellevue back in December.
Despite several attempts, The Review was unable to make contact with Village Manager Darwin McClary.
The Review reached out to Village of Oxford DPW Director Don Brantley and he said that if a water main break, and its repair, resulted in a complete loss of pressure, they have guidelines to follow which is consistent with DEQ requirements.
‘We try to keep pressure on the system but if we cannot, we’ll contact our village manager and the district supervisor from the DEQ,? Brantley said. ‘Once the we get the main repaired we’ll issue a boil water alert and hand-deliver letters to the residents in the affected area.
Brantley, who’s been in the position for almost 30 years, also said that they would need to take bacteria samples of both upstream and downstream. They would then lift the boil water alert until the samples came back negative.
Kristina Donaldson is the ODWMA District Supervisor for Southeastern Michigan and she said that if water main breaks are minor and only affect a small number of streets, then they don’t require notification from a municipality although they would like to be notified.
‘We’ve talked recently about their system and they’ve brought us up to speed on it,? Donaldson said.
Currently the Village of Lake Orion does not have a phone database and relies on two modes, Notify Me and Twitter. Notify Me is an email based alerting program that requires users to visit the Village’s website and register. Their Twitter account has nearly 1,050 followers but nearly 20 percent are non-village or business accounts.
At last Monday’s meeting, Council Member Christian Mills advocated the need to develop a update the notification system to all residents in the event of future issues.
With many village hydrant pressures being below 20psi, which is a DEQ requirement, should a BWA be issued to the residents in those affected areas?
The answer: Not exactly.
Field Operations Chief for ODWMA Richard Benzie expounded on the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act which explains the 20 psi requirement for fire hydrants.
‘I can tell you that the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act, Act 399 PA 1976, as amended, does not require a public water supply to provide fire protection,? Benzie said. ‘However, it does require systems that choose to do so, to not create a public health threat during these events.?
Benzie continued:
‘To avoid a public health threat, distribution system pressures at fire hydrants should not drop below 20 psi during an emergency such as firefighting, and not drop below 35 psi during other periods of peak domestic demands (on hot, dry days).?
If the fire department connected to a fire hydrant and its pressure went below 20 psi, and that number continued to drop, there’s a risk of drawing in contaminants into the water main if there was a leak already.
‘As long as there is 20 psi or 15 psi in the system, you got positive pressure, and even if you’re under the lake you’re not going to have back flow in,? village engineer Tom Biehl said at the village council meeting. ‘The concern that I think’the fire department would have and we would have is’if you put a nozzle on there and started pumping it and sucking it down to zero, then you got the potential that, if there was a break in the main, then you could get some back pressure and something could get into the main.??
But according to Biehl and DPW Director Jeremy Riechert, the water pressure in the main, without a hydrant open, is more than satisfactory and many times above 50 psi, according to Riechert.
Much of the old village water system can be compared to a garden hose with someone’s thumb at the end. Just as the hose would increase in pressure, the decreased diameter inside of the old, corroded and possibly calcified water main would keep constant pressures (or static pressures), high.
When you take your thumb off the end of the hose, or open a fire hydrant, that increase in volume and diameter results in a much lower pressure. So in regards to a BWA , just because the fire hydrant pressure is below the 20 psi when opened, it’s not indicative of actual water main pressure going into a person’s home.
However, if that pressure, due to a leak or water main break results in a complete loss of pressure, a BWA must still issued according to the ODWMA.
Home Insurance Rates
Beyond water quality, the question of increased home insurance rates have been a matter of concern for residents whose fire hydrants near their house have been marked out of service with a black cap.
They’re worried that because it’s marked out of service, their fire protection rate has dropped and would mean higher rates. Local Farmers Insurance Agent Cheryl Van Deusen said an increase wouldn’t happen immediately.
‘If this was going to be an ongoing situation and Lake Orion just throws up their hands and says ‘we’re not changing anything we can’t, we’ll just add a couple more pumpers and bring water in? then eventually I can see the protection class changing and that would raise the rates,? she said. ‘Eventually down the road the rates could go up but it’s going to be upon discovery of different insurance companies that there’s a problem.?
Van Duesen also said they base the rates on the zip code and the fire protection class and rates wouldn’t increase unless the fire protection class was lowered. Something that would be possible if the low water pressure in the fire hydrants was permanent.
The village is in the midst of conducting a water reliability study and once that’s finished it will give them a better indication on where exactly the problems exist. From there they’ll look into methods of payment which include receiving a loan from the state which would be paid back over 20 years at a two-percent interest rate.
Initial estimates from Biehl put the project cost upwards of $4.5 million if there’s 30,000 feet that has to get replaced.