Orion Township — A water main break in a transmission line early Sunday in Auburn Hills prompted a state of emergency in the city and nearby communities, meaning water should be used only in an emergency, with some communities relying on municipal water towers while water is cut off from the Great Lakes Water Authority.
The water emergency prompted local schools and businesses to close and a warning that repairs “will take some time.” In Orion Township, the closures include businesses — churches, restaurants and others — many of which were expecting crowds for Mother’s Day, Orion Township’s supervisor said at a press conference Sunday.
“We’ve been telling every one of those people that they can’t meet and that they can’t be open for business,” Supervisor Chris Barnett said.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer actived the State Emergency Operations Center and declared a state of emergency following the water main break. The declaration provides for the use of available state resources to help local repsnse and recovery operations, according to a Facebook post by the MSP Emergency Management & Homeland Security Division.
Barnett said authorities had been working “around the clock” on contingencies but “unfortunately, the worst of the potential scenarious happened …”
“We have a very scarse resource,” he said. “Water stopped flowing to our community at about 1:30 a.m.”
When the break occurred, the township’s water tower contained 2.5 million gallons, or about 44.5 feet of water, “about one day’s worth of water for Orion Township and the Village (of Orion),” he said.
The tower later Sunday had 33 feet “and it’s rapidly depleting as people are using the water.”
Due to the main break, Stellantis NV employees working at the Chrysler Technology Center, Lapeer Road Marshalling Center, Chrysler Office Building, Featherstone Road Engineering Center and “other area facilities” were told to work from home on Monday “unless otherwise notified by their management,” Stellantis NV said in a statement Sunday night.
Suzanne Coffey, CEO of the Great Lakes Water Authority, which supplies water to the communities, said it will be least two weeks until the water main is fixed. Crews are working on rerouting water from the main break and pumping out water at the break site. Officials plan to replace the pipe.
Communities affected were Auburn Hills, Orion Township, Lake Orion and Rochester Hills and parts of Oakland Township.
Orion Township, Lake Orion, Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills were under restricted water use. Those communities and parts of Oakland Township also were under a boil water advisory.
“(The line has) got to be disinfected,” Coffey said. “It’s got to be flushed and then that water has got to be sampled to make sure that it’s safe for consumption. That is going to take some time.”
The rupture in a 42-inch transmission line in River Woods Park near Squirrel Road just south of M-59 occurred at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, according to a release from the Auburn Hills Police Department.
For areas in Auburn Hills city limits, north of Taylor Road, water is being supplied by a municipal water tower,” police said in a release Sunday. “However this may not last until repairs are completed. In this area of the city, water may eventually run out. For areas south of Taylor Road the use of water for emergency purposes only is also in effect, as alternative resources are being utilized to provide water in this area of the city.”
Orion Township also is using a its storage tower to supply water, according to GLWA. Sunday afternoon, the township posted on Facebook: “At the current rate of usage, the likelihood of the water tower being depleted before the end of the day remains high.”
Sunday afternoon, Rochester Hills also faced water restrictions. The northwest part of the city, which no longer was receiving water from GLWA and was relying on its water tower, was under a boil water advisory. That area was at risk of losing water, officials said on Facebook.
Coffey said the water authority noticed a leak in the water main Wednesday and had been trying to reroute water so “that people wouldn’t be out of water at all.
“We were hoping that we could spend more time doing that, so we had to go back to the emergency plan, which is isolate, so we isolated this morning quickly and that gave us a circumstance where Orion Township and the northern part of Auburn Hills are no longer receiving water from the GLWA,” Coffey said.
“They both have water towers … so there’s some residual pressure but they are using that up, all morning that’s been used.”
Officials have asked residents affected to avoid doing laundry, using dishwashers, watering lawns, taking extended showers and other uses.
Lake Orion Community Schools will be closed Monday and Tuesday because restrooms cannot be used without water and accompanying pressure, the school’s website said.
The Great Lakes Water Authority deployed water distribution trucks early Sunday, giving out up to 2 gallons of water per household.
Bill and Mary Kalmar attended a media briefing by Oakland County officials Sunday morning at the Orion Township Municipal Complex to “find out what was happening with the water situation,” said Bill Kalmar, an Orion Township resident since 1988.
“I went to Kroger this morning and bought some water … it’s pretty dire, especially when we find out that the tank that we have in Orion Township is going to lose water and we won’t have water for a while,” he said.
Digital billboards around Orion Township caution residents to use water for emergency purposes only.
Auburn Hills officials said the break caused significant flooding in River Woods Park and along Squirrel Road. The park will be closed while the GLWA makes repairs, officials said. Squirrel Road was temporarily closed, but GLWA crews shut down the affected section of a transmission line, allowing the roadway to drain and the road to reopen.
During the emergency the water authority is giving out water starting at 10 a.m. at the following sites:
∎Atwater Park at 426 Atwater St. in the village of Lake Orion
∎Auburn Hills Department of Public Works, 1500 Brown Road
∎Wildwood Amphitheater at 2700 Joslyn Court, Orion Township
Cars were lined up on Waldon Road and Joslyn Court to enter Atwater Park as early as 8 a.m. Sunday, staff said.
mjohnson@detroitnews.com