GLWA boil water advisory lifted for seven communities

The Great Lakes Water Authority's weeklong boil water advisory following the water main break was lifted Saturday morning.

After the stabilization of water pressures and the completion of quality testing, the cities no longer under the advisory are:

An industrial park in Romeo was removed from the advisory as well. Only one business in Greenwood remains under the advisory.

The advisory was a precautionary measure set in place after a break in the 120-inch water transmission main was discovered Aug. 13. The transmission main is the largest in the regional system and responsible for distributing finished drinking water to 23 communities in metro Detroit. The consequent boil water advisory impacted nearly a million metro Detroiters.

The GLWA has outlined a series of steps that residents who were previously under the advisory should take before resuming use of their water. They are:

Run hot water only at all faucets and flush until water runs cool or typically a minimum of 15 minutes for a typical household 40-gallon hot water tank, or 30 minutes for a hot water tank larger than 40 gallons.

Water filters, such as ones used in refrigerators, faucets, pitchers and under the sink, are not designed to remove the specific bacteria potentially present during a boil water advisory. If you ran water through your filter during the boil water advisory, the filter should be replaced after flushing.

All 23 communities that were originally placed under the boil water advisory are asked to continue to limit their outdoor water use until the repairs are complete.

"Just because we are lifting the boil water advisory, doesn't mean we are lifting our foot off the gas pedal on getting this repair done," said GLWA Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Coffey in a news briefing Saturday. "We are still in an emergency operating mode."

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She warned that should the water system experience any significant pressure drops, it is possible that the boil water advisory could return.

The repair timeline remains at three weeks, and the GLWA estimates repairs to bcomplete by Sept. 3. Crews will remove the damaged section of the pipe by crane this weekend.