Detroit boil water advisory lifted, officials investigating possible of old pipes

DETROIT (FOX 2) - The boil water advisory has been lifted for downtown Detroit but concerns about how and why it happened remain.

"Everything is safe now go back to normal. Get rid of that bottled water and start using your tap," said Gary Brown, director of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

After a 42 inch water main break late Saturday forced a boil water advisory for downtown Detroit, city officials announced Tuesday -- two days earlier than initially expected -- that the advisory is no longer needed.

"No one has been out of water service. The inconvenience has been the boil water alert and that only lasted for two days," Brown said.

Since the advisory has been lifted its a sigh of relief for Checker Bar, like so many downtown businesses. This bar was gearing up to welcome thousands of visitors in town for the start of the North American International Auto Show.

"Almost a full day of business lost," said David Greggory with Checker Bar. 

"We certainly apologize to our guests that are here for the auto show," Brown said.

City officials said the water main break is still being repaired as back-up pipes work to provide water. The cause of the break is still unknown, but some question if the age of the pipe was the culprit.

"The oldest portions of the system that were put in in the late1800s are still in ground because for decades, there wasn't much investment put into the system. The good news is today, we're putting more than $100 million a year into rebuilding our system," Brown said.

As businesses like this work to recover from the water main break some workers have this message for city leaders.

"We need to make sure our infrastructure is functioning and working, from the roads to the pipes to the electric because I've been down 14 years and I can say every time we see a growth burst, we tend to see failures come with it as far as the infrastructure," Greggory said.