Boil Order in Effect Due to Water Main Break - October 20th, 2025

As everyone should realize by now, the Village has had a major water main break and the Village is currently under a Boil Order.  The short version is that the main 8” line that runs up the dune from Perkins, about where the green pump house for the golf course irrigation is located, to our Water Tower failed this past Wednesday with a catastrophic breach.  This happened at the top of the dune near the Water Tower.  The golf course irrigation main 8” line runs adjacent to this potable water main and it also failed when the potable main separated and the water tower drained down the dune.  Of course, this all happened at exactly the moment staff was meeting with the EGLE representative on his 5 year inspection of our water system.  We immediately shut down our water distribution valves and contacted Oleska Construction to assist us in the repair.  Since a significant portion of the dune washed down to Perkins, covering it under three feet of sand, our first task was rebuilding the dune to support the water main once it was repaired.  The two 8” mains were repaired by about 7 pm Friday.  This was about 55 hours after the breach was discovered.  The water to residents was turned back on by mid-day on Saturday.  At that time, everyone had water for toilets, showers, laundry, etc. but this water had not been tested and determined to be drinkable. 

 On Saturday, when we attempted to refill the water tower, we learned that the valve that controls the Water Tower Float was closed and would not open.  This prevented us from refilling the water tower.  Our staff and Peerless, the valve manufacturer, are meeting this morning to determine what is causing this problem and how to correct it. 

 Our current best estimate is that the Boil Order will be lifted sometime Friday.  This is the current plan based on no new surprises.  However, the water you have will be usable for everything other than consumption (drinking, cooking) or cleaning or rinsing of food prep or serving pieces and utensils.  Be aware, most dishwashers have a “sanitize” setting which will safely clean dishes. 

 Someone might ask, doesn’t the Village have a back-up plan in place for this kind of event, and the answer is yes we do.   We have two locations where we have emergency connections to the New Buffalo Water Township system which we can use to provide water to the Village when something like this happens.  Unfortunately, the EGLE representative who was present during this event informed us that because the two water systems, NB Township and Michiana (which comes from Michigan City, and supplies our water) do not use the same chlorination chemicals so we could NOT open our emergency interconnects.  We will be reviewing this in greater detail with EGLE in the future, but we were not going to take the risk of putting our residents in harm’s way by ignoring EGLE’s directions.

 So, what caused this failure?  While we do not currently know for absolutely certainty, based on observations of the conditions and reviews with the contractor doing the repair work, we know that the water main ruptured at the top of the dune where the water line turns to the right toward the water tower, after going up the dune.  Since both the Water Tower main line and the Irrigation Water Storage Tank main line were next to each other, once one failed and the water started flowing down the dune, the other line was undermined and failed.

 To prevent the movement of these pipes in the future, the repair process included stabilizing the new connections by encasing them in concrete.

 Lastly, we do not have a back-up plan in place in the event our primary back-up plan (supply via our emergency interconnects) does not work.  So, I will be asking the Council to prepare a detailed back-up plan for an event similar to what actually happened here.  That would include steps necessary to ensure our residents have access to drinking water and toilet water/facilities.  We did have two porta potties brought to the Village Hall for resident’s use and we did have staff visit homes in the Village with potable water.  This was done on Friday and should have been done on Thursday.  That was my failure and I thank Jim Bracewell and Melissa Hunt-Loy for suggesting we do this.  I am certain there will be many more questions and we welcome them.  In the near future, we will also plan a townhall to update the village and answer questions about this event.

Harry Walder
Council President 
Village of Grand Beach

 Thank you again for your patience, and remember, the Village of Grand Beach Remains Under a Boil Order Until Further Notice.