Detroit neighborhood without water due to broken valve

DETROIT (FOX 2) - The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department says it hopes to have water access restored to a northwest neighborhood by the end of the day Wednesday after pressure dropped.

Neighbors in the Rosedale Park neighborhood, near McNichols and Grand River called the water department on Monday, though the issues are believed to have persisted on and off for about two weeks. 

Crews arrived at the scene late Tuesday night and continued work Wednesday morning.

A spokesman with DWSD said a drop in water pressure happened due to a bad valve. "The valves regulate the water flow in the water mains," said Bryan Peckinpaugh. "So when those break or fail they tend to cause low pressure in households."

Utility workers were busy flushing hydrants and opening valves to help give residents some relief.

Despite a permanent fix coming within days of crews responding, some residents were left fuming that they had to wait as long as they did for a fix. 

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Peckinpaugh said the water mains in some parts of the city are a hundred years old and don't have any alert system notifying the department of a problem. Instead, they rely on residents to report issues to the city. 

"We do rely on customers to call DWSD or use the Improve Detroit app so once they call we can come out and investigate and see what the problem is and schedule a repair," he said.

The water fix came with a reminder about the $100 million that Detroit spending to maintain and upgrade its water mains. 

In Octber, the city announced it would be funneling $100 million to replace lead service lines over the next three years.