Capac officials say private contractor will pay for the repair and damages
CAPAC — Bills connected to the cost of repairs of the recent water main break continue to be compiled, with a final bill to be sent to the private contractor responsible for the mishap.
Village Manager Travis Youatt said not all of the costs have been tallied as of yet.
“We are still calculating the bill for this work,” said Youatt. “The contractor will be billed for the repair and damage,” that was caused.
The Village of Capac was placed under a boil water alert following this break. A final repair bill is being tallied.
A boil water alert was issued, following a break in one of the village’s 12-inch mains earlier this month.
Youatt, who also oversees the DPW, said he was notified that there was a large amount of water and a possible broken water line on Kempf St., west of Main Street.
Youatt said a private contractor was working at a residence on the north side of Kempf St. when they struck the water line with a small excavator machine.
“It sounded like maybe they hooked the connection of the service line and the main and damaged the main,” Youatt said at the time of the incident.
“We’ve got good people here working on it. The fire department came in with a large pump, plus we had several other smaller submersible pumps to draw the water out,” Youatt stated.
The village manager said several state and county agencies were automatically notified of the break.
Officials with Michigan Rural Water Association were the ones responsible for issuing the boil water alert and did so, late Monday morning. Alerts were made on social media and other means of notification.
Youatt said the alert is automatically a 48-hour warning for everyone who is on the village water system to boil water for drinking. The alert ended up being for several days, forcing some residents to use bottled water for drinking and other household needs.
Western St. Clair County Commissioner Steve Simasko was made aware of the situation and was able to work with the County’s Emergency Management department to have bottled water trucked in to the village.
The St. Clair County Health Department was among those made aware of the break and who monitored water quality.
Youatt said several hundred thousand gallons of water were lost as a result of the break.
According to the village manager, when the break was first reported the village water tower was drained of more than 250,000 gallons as a result of the break.
Water pressure was reduced to half capacity in fire hydrants throughout town, Youatt said.
Youatt said repairs were completed about 12 hours after the initial break.
