BRIGHTON, Mich. (WXYZ) — The city of Brighton is under a boil water advisory following a water main break that early Thursday morning. Many residents saw a sharp drop in water pressure prior to the leak being identified.
Early warnings put out by the city indicated the boil water advisory could last 48 to 72 hours, a reality many business owners, like Mac Hawes, feared heading into the Easter holiday weekend.
“It’s scary. It’s very scary. It’s hard enough now with the street closure as it is, just trying to make it every day. But not having water on top of it, having to close our deli which is a huge part of our business, it’s terrifying,” he explained.
Hawes is the co-owner of Great Harvest Bakery on Main Street in Brighton. He and his employees were trying their best despite business being anything but normal Thursday.
“I know how hard all the business owners work down here, to have one extra challenge on it, just really sucks,” Hawes said.
For many other businesses, it was one challenge too many. They decided to close for the day.
“If we don’t have water tomorrow, and I can’t fill these Easter orders, that’s a huge, huge loss, that I don’t know how we’ll recover from,” Hawes admitted.
Susan Laramie and her friends explained had planned to have lunch on Main Street but had to change their plans. They explained what they normally love about Brighton.
“It’s a charming, small town that still has very good shops in it. It’s walkable,” said Laramie.
Unfortunately, their normal lunch at Brighton Grill was disrupted.
“We always come to Brighton Grill and are so sad that we’re not going to get our Brighton Grill long lunch,” Laramie said.
Marcel Goch is the Department of Public Services director. He was overseeing the water main break repairs Thursday at the intersection of Washington and 3rd Street.
“The whole city was affected at first because of the amount of water loss. Not everyone lost water. Some of them had pressure but it was really low,” explained Goch.
He said it was not a contamination issue.
“Anytime you go below, I believe it’s 20 psi, they say, ‘Hey, look, you’ve got to boil your water if you’re going to consume it. You can still use it for your bathrooms, your showers, your clothes,” Goch explained.
He responded to whether the information about the boil water advisory lasting up to 48 to 72 hours was accurate.
“It may be that long, but I doubt it. But off the top of my head I don’t want to give a definitive answer till I have one,” said Goch.
He explained anyone looking for the latest updates can go to the city website or use the new city app My Brighton MI.
“When we’re up at full pressure, we’ll put out notifications that let everybody know, ‘Hey, everybody’s back to normal.’ And we’ll let everybody know about the water boil notice as well,” said Goch.
