Scottville DPW continues to work on water main break.

Scottville DPW continues to work on water main break.

SCOTTVILLE — A water main break in the 100 block of South Main Street caused a flood downtown today. It also means the street is closed until at least Wednesday, according to City Manager Jim Newkirk. Newkirk said Department of Public Works employees have not been able to pinpoint the exact cause of the leak.

“We don’t know what broke other than the main,” Newkirk said. “We don’t know what kind of break and we don’t know where exactly but we’re out of options for tonight and we just need to shut it off. We can’t continue to dig with a backhoe because we have cross lines to the stores across the street.”

Newkirk said a water boil advisory will likely be issued for downtown residents and businesses.

We will probably have to do a boil advisory for only the residents in the upstairs apartments but we’re checking to see exactly what has to be done for that since it’s not a large town wide situation.”

Newkirk said the water issue does impact several businesses, including two eating establishments and five apartments.

The downtown water main was one of the few water mains that was not replaced about eight years ago when the city received a grant to replace the majority of the mains. Newkirk said he believes the downtown water main had been replaced in the late 1990s when the streetscape was re-built.

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