By Chris Hagan
Review Staff Writer
Following last Monday’s Orion Township board meeting, it was revealed that for nearly 20 years the Village of Lake Orion knew about the dismal water main pressures.
At the meeting, Fire Chief Robert Smith presented a 38-page packet of emails, memo correspondence, and hydrant pressure spreadsheets depicting a history of fleeting water main pressures dating back to 1997.
The issue on the table is the village is requesting that the fire department collaborate with the village DPW and participate in another round of hydrant testing. The last round of testing occurred just three months ago.
‘We reported to the DPW, village manager and village council president that water pressures were non-existent and an emergency fix or repair is needed immediately,? Smith said. ‘As far as I know they have not isolated the problem or have a resolve.?
Smith noted that if a viable solution had been determined and adequate repairs were being made, he’d be more than willing to retest the hydrants. But according to Smith, nothing of the sort has happened in the 50 days since the fire on Sheron St that resulted in a complete loss of a home.
‘Never once have they indicated their engineers are working on a solution,? Smith said. ‘I have not said anything up to this point because in the end we can talk about the problem all we want, but fixing low water pressure is the only solution.?
Problems found in 1997-2006
In 1997, 131 hydrants were inspected. Forty-nine were found to be acceptable while 82 were unacceptable, according to then Fire Chief Jeff Key. He presented the results to then village Manager John Berchtold.
At that time, pressures on Glanworth, Summer, Goldengate, and Markdale ranged from zero to 12psi. Corners Court, sections of Orion Rd, and Mariday never saw pressures above 4psi. And similar to the results found in 2015, the hydrant pressures in 1997 on Central and all along Bellevue Island ranged from two to 15psi.
During this time period, and still to this day, the township paid the Village $15 per hydrant for maintenance and repair. But because of the dismal hydrants in the village, former Chief Key felt it appropriate only to pay for the hydrants that were in proper working order, stating he had no objection to paying for operational hydrants but didn’t want to pay for inoperable ones.
Berchtold indicated he would prefer not to accept partial payment for the serviceable fire hydrants since that could create questions of liability to the village in areas where fire hydrants were found to be inadequate.
Through testing between 1997 and 2000 it revealed, yet again, there were ‘numerous problems with a considerable number of fire hydrants in the village,? wrote Jeff Key.
According to Key, the fire department offered to pay the maintenance fee for the operational hydrants again, but not for those that were still unacceptable. The village manager declined, saying ‘partial payment would raise too many questions about the condition of the system and possibly expose the village to legal action in the event of a fire.?
In a letter to then Orion Township Supervisor Jerry Dywasuk in January 2000, Key wrote that the fire department had no objection to paying for hydrants that were in good working order.
The letter continued:
‘At the village manager’s request, we marked those hydrants that were unsuitable for fire fighting, in a manner that would not be readily apparent to the general public, but would clearly identify them for our firefighters.?
Later in 2000, the village requested another inspection following several water system improvements projects. One hundred forty three fire hydrants were inspected of which 86 were acceptable while 57 were still unacceptable.
Key wrote:
‘With nearly 40 percent of the fire hydrants checked in need of repair or unable to provide adequate fire flows, it would appear that more improvements to this system are needed.?
Five years later the fire department still hadn’t been advised of any significant repairs or upgrades to the fire hydrants or water supply system in the village. Shortly thereafter, the fire department began another round of water main testing in the village. Eighty-five fire hydrants were marked ‘approved and accepted,? 56 were found to be unacceptable, 46 still needed to be flowed and one was not inspected.
In 2006, the test concluded in the Village and the results proved to be worse. Of those streets mentioned above (Glanworth, Goldengate, and Markdale), they actually saw worsening hydrant pressures. Glanworth was at 2psi, Goldengate at 4psi, and Markdale at 3psi. Though hydrants on Bellevue went up to a slightly less-horrid 11psi in 2000, they fell again in the 2006 test to a maximum pressure of 9psi. That 2006 test also had hydrants showing single digit pressures on all of Central Drive and the peninsulas extending off of it.
It was noted in the report that the majority of the unacceptable fire hydrants were due to inadequate fire flows though most with mechanical or site issues have been repaired or corrected. However, a number of fire hydrants still needed to be replaced at that time.
Two months after the results were tallied for the 2006 hydrant test, The Lake Orion Review ran a story concerning the hydrant pressures on Park Island. Village council member and former DPW director John Ranville speculated that part of the problem may be that the existing fire mains on Park Island can’t produce enough pressure for modern fire pumpers.
Essentially, the problem is not the water mains, he suggested, but the modern fire pump is too powerful. He also suggested that another obvious water source for fighting fires is being overlooked or disregarded.
‘The fire department has the greatest resource in the world — the lake,? Ranville said. ‘They don’t need to rely on the hydrants. But for some reason, our fire department doesn’t like using water from the lake.?
At last Monday’s board meeting Smith addressed Ranville’s statement from 2006.
‘The problem is that they have built up around that lake so much that any spot we used to have to draft water from we can no longer get to because there’s houses and other buildings there,? Smith said.
Additionally, Smith told the township board of the intense process that goes into using water from the lake. It’s labor intensive, uses several more firefighters than a hydrant, and there are limitations on how far you’re able to pull water from the lake.
Testing in 2015
The fire department began yet another hydrant test on June 23, 2015 to determine fallacies in the village water system amid concerns of low pressure based on previous records.
After the first day, assistant Chief John Pender informed Village DPW director Jeremy Richert that several issues were found involving 11 hydrants on just day one. Those issues, which ranged from unremovable caps to inoperable valves, were obviously nothing new. According to Pender, many of those issues noted were also issues found when the department did similar testing in 2005 and 2006.
On July 2, 2015, Pender sent Richert another email with a subject heading of ‘Hydrant Issue (Urgent)? informing him that the pressure in front of Jacobsen’s Flowers was 20psi. In 2005, that same hydrant had 64 psi and then a year later it was reading 46psi.
‘Our problem is that it is way to low for the type of building we are supposed to protect. That is a high hazard building and we need a better water source,? Pender wrote. ‘I am hoping that a valve is partially closed and that fixes the problem. Could you please look into this as soon as possible and let me know what you find.?
A little over month later, during the same hydrant testing, Pender sent a spreadsheet of hydrants that were pressure tested up to that date.
Pender wrote to Richert:
‘I am starting to have some real concerns in regards to the PSI that some of these hydrants are putting out,? Pender wrote. ‘I’m not a ‘water guy? but it seems to me that something must be shut off or blocked to be reading no pressure.?
Pender continued to include the hydrants on Markdale, Summer, and Parkview were all reading zero psi.
‘This is obviously a HUGE issue if we should have a fire in that sub,? he wrote.
Though those three streets are in the township, their water mains are supplied by the village’s water system.
On September 1 the fire department completed its list of village hydrant inspections and sent the findings to Richert. Pender ended the email with:
‘As you can clearly see our major issue seems to be Bellevue Island and Central. There is very little to no pressure in these areas.?
As it stands now
Since the township board meeting on December 21, there hasn’t been any fixes made or a determination of cause discovered that would explain why so many areas of the village have low pressure. During the meeting, frustrations were high and township Clerk Penny Shults made a motion to terminate the contract with the village in supplying them water and having the township take ownership and responsibility of the village water distribution system.
‘Yes this motion is extreme but I at least want this motion to be discussed and looked at because I believe it will bring the village council to the table,? Shults said at the meeting. ‘We have to look at this. I don’t want to come back here in two years and have absolutely nothing resolved except for more finger pointing.?
Though the motion was voted down 6-1, it was made in hopes of bringing a more expedited fix to the situation.
Beyond the areas of Heights, Central and Bellevue, there are six different areas that have hydrant pressure that are not meeting requirements.
The hydrant located at 188 S. Andrews near the intersection of Lake and S. Andrews is the highest out of the bunch at 20psi. Moving east across M-24, the hydrant at the end of Hauxwell produces a failing pressure of 15psi while just one street over on Washington, cross of Cedar Bend, that hydrant is at zero.
Shifting further east to the Orion Road corridor, the hydrant at Eastview and Mariday has a discharge pressure of 0psi. The hydrants down the street at Corners Court have a mirrored pressure of 0psi as does the hydrant by East Lawn Cemetery.
Both Village Manager Darwin McClary and council President Ken Van Portfliet have said they and their administration did not know there was an issue with the water mains.
Ranville, who serves on the current village council and is the President Pro Tem, was the village DPW director from 1967 to 2004.
McClary has promised that the hydrant issue will be on every village agenda until the issue is repaired. Additionally, Orion Township trustee Neil Porter has asked for the hydrant issue to be placed on the township agenda. The next township board meeting will be on Monday, January 4 at 7 p.m. The next village council meeting will be held on Monday, January 11 at 7:30 at the village hall located at 21 E. Church St.