The City of Wyoming has completed the unplanned emergency repair on the larger of two water transmission mains and lifted the Sprinkling Ban at 11:00 p.m. Wednesday night. The repair, which took effect the morning of August 11, impacted 13 West Michigan communities. Good weather and hard work from two contractors, Kamminga & Roodvoets and Prein & Newhof, allowed the project to complete ahead of schedule, restoring
full water capacity to the 230,000 people served by Wyoming’s system.

Together, the two water transmission mains can carry up 104 million gallons of clean, drinkable water each day. During the repair, the larger of the two transmission lines was out of service and the water system capacity was limited to about 35 million gallons of water per day. To maintain
safe water and avoid boil advisories that are issued when a total loss of water pressure occurs, a Sprinkling Ban was put in place.

With summer water demand at 70 million gallons per day on average, customers were collectively asked to reduce their water consumption by more than 35 million gallons per day, which could be accomplished through observing the Sprinkling Ban. The ban was a success. The West Michigan communities served by the plant showed up for each other by reducing the average daily demand on the Wyoming Treatment Plant to an average of 33.6 million gallons per day. This was achieved by complying with the Sprinkling Ban and helping spread the message about the emergency repair.

“We want to thank all of the water customers who did their part to pause their sprinkling habits, reduce water consumption, and help us spread the message to their neighbors, family, and friends. It’s rare to have an unplanned repair like this and to happen during peak demand was not ideal. We were in a serious situation that could have resulted in boil advisories,” said City of Wyoming Director of Public Works Myron Erickson. “Fortunately, with the help of our amazing community members actively conserving water and our municipal partnerships, we were able to maintain our water pressure and provide clean, potable water throughout the nine-day repair.”