NOVI, Mich. – A boil water advisory remained in effect Tuesday for residents in Novi and Walled Lake after a major water main break disrupted service, leaving some neighbors frustrated and demanding answers from the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA).
“Oh my God, again,” said Novi resident Ankaj Garg when learning of the latest issue. “The same line. Again.”
The advisory stems from a 48-inch transmission main break near 14 Mile and Drake that initially left residents without water before prompting the precautionary advisory.
While some residents said city officials have been responsive, several neighbors said they felt they are not getting enough information from the GLWA.
The break has renewed concerns among residents who said similar problems have occurred over and over again.
“Every year we see prices of water and services going up and quality is going down,” said Novi resident Ashish Verma at a city council meeting Monday night.
Another resident, Vinitt Upta, pointed to multiple service disruptions over the past decade.
“2017, 2021, 2025 -- Two times. Then, 2026 we had either low water or water outages,” Upta said.
Dan Tollis, who said he has lived in Novi for 32 years, said the repeated failures are wearing on residents.
“What do we need to do? Do we wait for the next failure?” Tollis said.
Tollis said he contacted city and state officials Tuesday to voice his concerns, demand action and accountability.
“I don’t have a good feeling that any interim fix that they have is going to work,” he said.
Crews for the Great Lakes Water Authority were seen at Novi City Hall and working near the break site, they said replacing a 20-foot section of the damaged main.
Records reviewed by Local 4 show at least three water main breaks along 14 Mile in recent years. Breaks occurred in 2017 and 2021 near 14 Mile and Drake roads, where water was seen gushing, although GLWA said those failures did not occur at the same location. Another break happened in September 2025 along 14 Mile just west of M-5.
City council and Novi’s mayor questioned GLWA about the repeated issues.
“This is an issue that keeps coming up repeatedly time and time again,” said one council member. They asked where it stands on GLWA’s priority list.
GLWA: “I would say it’s on the highest of the priorities now.”
Meanwhile, GLWA said the first round of water quality tests following the break came back clear. A second round of testing has been completed, with results expected Wednesday. If the results come back clear again, the boil water advisory will be lifted.
Residents like Tollis said they still want clearer answers about the cause of the failures and what will be done to prevent them in the future, however.
“They can’t sit there and say well, geez, we’re perplexed and just leave it at that. You’re gonna have to know and fix it or just replace the whole thing,” Tollis said.
Local 4 also contacted the Great Lakes Water Authority with several questions raised by residents in the affected communities, including why portions of the system appear to be failing repeatedly and how the agency identifies distressed sections of pipe before they break.
Residents also wanted to know what investigations will be done to determine whether other sections installed at the same time may also be vulnerable, whether the repeated breaks pose any safety concerns for the water supply, and what preventative actions could stop future failures.
Some residents also asked whether the utility plans to reimburse families for expenses tied to the outages. For the second time in less than six months, some households were left without water, this time over a weekend, forcing families to purchase water containers or consider hotel stays to manage basic household needs.
Local 4 is still waiting for a response to these questions.
GLWA did say that the Oakland County Health Division has created a helpful checklist for residents and businesses to use once Novi and Walled Lake emerge from the boil water advisories and added that GLWA will share more information as it becomes available.