Some Clawson residents had discolored water, low pressure

A rude awakening at the corner of Allen and Bellevue sent the thoughts of Joyce Millen sinking.

“Sleepless. I keep waiting for the water to come back on. I don’t even know why I’m worrying. I knew it would come back on. But you’re thinking, ‘Is it going to come back on now? Is it going to be on before I go to lunch? Can I take a shower soon?’” said Millen, a Clawson resident.

Sometime around 3 a.m. on Wednesday, an apparent water main break caused pressure to plummet. It turns out it wasn’t a water main break at all.

“There was an end cap which used to be a fire hydrant that had blown off,” said Mark Pollock, Clawson City Manager.

Flashes of what happened day prior, just one town over in Troy – a seven-foot water main break trigged a boil water advisory and prompted people to line up for bottled water.

Clawson contacted a representative from the water authority to see if what they were experiencing was a side effect of the Troy break.

"Troy is on a separate system, so he assured us that it had nothing to do with that. It was just coincidental.  It's an old main. The main in that area was put in in 1928," said Pollock.

Fortunately for them, the fix was rather easy. A new end was put in place on the hydrant and water was restored.

"If you do see a little bit of rusty water, stop,” said Pollock. “If you go back in about an hour, it should be clear. If not, let it run for a few minutes and then it should be clear"

With the problem fixed, the attention now turns to something a little more labor intensive. There’s a pile of sand that used to be under the road. With it gone, it’s compromised the integrity of the street. The section of road will have to be replaced.

As for Joyce Millen, she says it would have been fine with her if the workers didn’t rush to get things back to normal.

"I could be washing floors, but now I don't have too.”