Novi, MI — Residents and businesses in Novi remain without water after the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) once again missed its own deadline to restore service following a major transmission line failure.
RELATED: Water Main Break At 14 Mile And Drake Leaves Much Of Novi Without Water
After initially assuring communities that water pressure would return overnight, GLWA officials acknowledged late Saturday that repairs were taking longer than expected as crews worked to repressurize the regional system tied to the 14 Mile pump station.
According to GLWA, engineers were able to reconfigure the Haggerty Pump Station and begin rebuilding pressure in the regional system. However, a malfunctioning valve slowed the process, forcing crews to isolate portions of the system in order to build pressure faster.
GLWA CEO Suzanne R. Coffey publicly acknowledged the delay, apologizing to Novi residents and businesses who remained without water more than 24 hours after the outage began.
Earlier in the emergency, Coffey admitted the situation was unacceptable for residents and businesses across the region. In a statement released Saturday night, she said GLWA is working as quickly as possible to restore service while also acknowledging broader infrastructure problems within the system.
Coffey said GLWA plans to continue capital investments in the affected portion of the system and will be communicating with state and federal lawmakers to request additional funding to inspect water transmission mains and proactively renew or replace aging infrastructure following what she described as repeated catastrophic pipe failures.
“Speaking directly to the people and businesses of Novi and Walled Lake, we know that this is not an acceptable situation and it is not the level of service that you expect or deserve. To the people and businesses in the communities of Farmington Hills, Wixom, Commerce Township and West Bloomfield Township, we appreciate your patience as your pressures have been lower than expected and we thank your representatives and water system operators for their efforts and cooperation throughout the emergency,” said Suzanne R. Coffey, Chief Executive Officer, GLWA. “Today we are working as expediently as possible to address the emergency. For the future, we will continue our capital investments in this portion of the system as well as actively communicate with our State and Federal legislators to request additional systemic funding to allow us to inspect our water transmission mains and renew or replace them proactively to stem the tide of these repeated catastrophic pipe failures.”
The outage stems from a major water transmission main break near 14 Mile Road that disrupted service across multiple communities, including Novi, Walled Lake, Farmington Hills, Wixom, Commerce Township, and West Bloomfield.
Despite multiple restoration estimates from GLWA, the system has yet to return to normal operations. The latest estimate places the return of water pressure around 12:00 p.m. Sunday.
”We apologize to the residents and businesses of Novi for this further delay and for the fact that after 24 hours they remain out of service,” said Suzanne R. Coffey, Chief Executive Officer, GLWA. “We are working as quickly as possible to fully isolate portions of the system so that we can continue our efforts to ensure that Novi residents have water as soon as possible today.”
Even when service does return, officials say affected communities will immediately enter a Boil Water Advisory due to the loss of system pressure.
GLWA operates the regional water transmission system that supplies drinking water to much of Southeast Michigan, meaning local communities rely on the authority to deliver treated water through its network of major transmission mains and pump stations.
Officials say once the system is fully restored, residents should expect updates regarding the boil water advisory and guidance on flushing plumbing systems before normal water use resumes.
Local leaders are expected to meet with GLWA representatives Sunday morning to seek answers about the prolonged outage and the repeated delays in restoring service.
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