South Lyon isolates 1,000,000-gallon storage tank after major leak; odd/even irrigation restrictions put in place

Water Superintendent Ron told the council that an operator discovered a leak at approximately 8 a.m. on July 20 in the southwest side of the city's 1,000,000-gallon ground storage tank, GST 1. "We immediately isolated the ground storage tank, GST 1, from the water system by manually closing the fill and drain valves," he said, adding that the leak is roughly 9 feet and a vertical crack extends about 1 inch to the top. Staff diverted treated water to the 600,000-gallon GST 2 and began manually pumping remaining water to waste.

The superintendent said the loss of GST 1 reduces treated-water storage capacity by about 62 percent and that tank levels dropped to 14 feet within 3.5 hours on July 22, leaving approximately 300,000 gallons. He read the city's bulletin announcing a temporary odd/even irrigation schedule (odd-numbered addresses water on odd dates; even-numbered addresses on even dates) designed to maintain pressure and supply during repairs, and emphasized this is not a boil-water advisory. Ron said Preload (the tank manufacturer) will perform an interior inspection once the tank is emptied and HRC's structural team will assess the exterior; he cautioned he did not yet have a timeline for repair or return to service.

Council members pressed staff about redundancy and inspection history. Ron said the tank had a full interior/exterior rehab in 2022 and that prior repairs had focused on the same area; he described prior dive-team inspections and injections of two-part epoxy as temporary measures. "These tanks generally last 75 years or longer," he said, calling the current leak "a bit of a surprise." Several council members urged rapid engineering assessment and discussed options including whether to repair or replace the tank, and whether regional agreements with neighboring jurisdictions could provide redundancy.