Easy access to safe drinking water is something almost all of us take for granted. When that easy access is interrupted, it takes an entire community coming together to make sure that access, although not as easy, is still there.
Early in the morning of August 13, 2022, a 120” water main operated by the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) ruptured in the middle of a field in Burtchville Township in St. Clair County. This pipeline, the largest in the GLWA system, transports water from a GLWA treatment plant after it’s been drawn from Lake Huron, and is the main supplier of drinking water for 23 communities at the northern end of GLWA’s service area.
Not long after the main broke, those 23 communities were placed under a boil water advisory, as GLWA could not guarantee that the pressure in their water systems would remain above the minimum threshold to ensure that bacteria would not contaminate the water. While the water was safe to use for sanitation purposes, it was not safe to cook with or drink.
County government, led by our Emergency Management Office with significant assistance from the Department of Roads, the Health Department and the Office of Senior Services, immediately set to work to make sure the approximately 300,000 Macomb County residents in the boil water advisory area had access to some safe water. Working with the local communities impacted, the State of Michigan, and local distributors, our Emergency Management team arranged for shipments of bottled water to be brought into Macomb County and sent to the local communities, who would distribute the water to residents from community distribution centers.
By Sunday, August 14, adjustments made to the water system by GLWA improved pressure in the system and left only four communities in Macomb under the boil water advisory: Bruce, Shelby and Washington Townships as well as an industrial park in Romeo. That same day, the first shipments of water arrived in Macomb County, and a County distribution center was established at a Department of Roads site to allow for the impacted communities to pick up pallets of bottled water by the truckload.
For the next six days, approximately 100 pallets of water per day were delivered by various sources, and approximately 75 pallets per day were transferred to the impacted communities, who picked them up using trucks and trailers. Crews from the Department of Roads worked diligently to unload the water shipments and to load up shipments to the locals, staff from Emergency Management oversaw the logistics and inventory operations, and the local communities handled the on the ground distribution.
In order to accomodate homebound seniors that would otherwise not be able pick up water from distribution sites, the Macomb County Office of Senior Services partnered with Emergency Management to arrange for volunteers to deliver cases of water to all registered Meals on Wheels participants in the three impacted communities. Due to the efforts of the team at Senior Services and their volunteers, 120 homebound individuals received a delivery of water directly to their door.
On Saturday, August 20, the boil water advisory was lifted for all remaining communities. The repair to the pipeline is ongoing, with an estimated date of October 5 for resumption of normal water service. Emergency Management is maintaining a reserve of bottled water in the event that there are problems as the system comes back on line that require the reimplementation of a boil water advisory for any part of the GLWA service area.
Despite the response operation to the main break being set up in just a day, it was a success - 354 pallets of water were delivered to residents in the impacted communities over the course of six days, and 120 vulnerable seniors were taken care of. This incident is one more example of how Macomb County comes together in times of need to make sure that our friends and neighbors are safe.
