Early Sunday morning, Feb. 14, Fenton Department of Public Works (DPW) workers responded to a water main break in the parking lot of VG’s on N. LeRoy Street.
The water loss started around 10 p.m., Saturday. Stephen Guy, supervisor of the city’s water plant, said there was a large rock next to the main and over time, it wore a hole in the side of the main until it gave way. He said these types of breaks are termed blowouts, and radial cracks are
caused by ground movement. “The cold was not the cause but cold usually causes ground movement, which aids in causing breaks,” he said.
The city of Fenton lost pressure in all area of the city north of Dauner Road. Contamination may have occurred.
The city issued a “boil water” advisory. A rescind order will be given after two consecutive test periods, 24 hours apart of negative bacteria, results have been received.
The boil water advisory urged residents to boil water before using it for drinking water. Bring all water to a boil, let it boil for one minute and let it cool before using — or use bottled water. Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes, and preparing food. Boiling kills bacteria and other organisms in the water. Continue using boiled or bottled water until further notice.
The precautionary actions were being taken due to the loss of water pressure in the water distribution system caused by a water main break on Feb. 14. Whenever a water system loses pressure for any significant length of time, precautionary measures are recommended.
The Fenton water department worked to get pressure restored, and water staff took other remedial actions such as flushing and collecting bacteriological samples from around the system.
The repair was completed about 4:30 Sunday, Feb. 14, but rescind orders would take at least 48 hours.
Guy said a situation causing low pressure in the water pipes can potentially cause contamination due to backflow. The treated water carries a chlorine residual to allow disinfection of water that may enter the main during events such as a water main break. When breaks are repaired, the main is not shut down completely to keep positive pressure flowing so that a backflow situation does not take place.
During repair of the N. LeRoy Street water main, Guy said water did not stop flowing out during the repair but because there were calls of no water, the decision to issue a boil water alert was made.
The break that occurred was just north of the VG’s south parking lot entrance. Anyone on the city of Fenton public water system north of that area on North Leroy St. and including, Glenwood Avenue and Pineview Drive were affected.
Those north of the break that were not affected are Fenton Estates, Fenton Commons Lane, the subdivision off S. Long Lake Roard, Swanee Beach, Orchard Lake Drive and Appletree Lane. The water main for these areas comes from N. LeRoy St. but south of the break area.