Boil water advisory issued after East Bay Township water pressure drop

Residents in a slice of East Bay Charter Township had to boil tap water for one minute after a SCADA network communication error knocked out well systems and dropped water pressure in the community supply. The advisory covered homes south of E. Hammond Road, west of N. Four Mile Road and east of Elmbrook Golf Course, and county officials said it would stay in place until bacteriological samples showed the water met state drinking-water standards. For families, restaurants and households serving people with higher health risks, the safest move was to treat every tap as unsafe until officials gave the all-clear.

Grand Traverse County directed customers to boil water before drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, washing dishes or making ice. That meant morning routines shifted fast across the affected neighborhood, with kitchens, cafes and service providers relying on bottled water or boiled water to keep operating while the system was restored.

County officials said the pressure loss happened June 9, 2026, after the communication error prevented the well systems from operating. Repairs were completed, and water staff were flushing the system and collecting bacteriological samples. The county said it expected to remove the boil water notice within 48 hours if the samples confirmed the water met drinking-water standards.

The alert highlighted how dependent East Bay Township is on a small number of critical water assets, even though the disruption was limited and not countywide. East Bay Township, east of Traverse City along the southern shoreline of Grand Traverse Bay, said a pressure loss may have allowed contamination in specific areas and kept the advisory in effect until testing proved the water was safe again.

Grand Traverse County Public Works posted the notice and an affected-area map, while East Bay Township repeated the warning on its own water and sewer information pages. The county’s Board of Public Works oversees the Department of Public Works that provides sewer and water services for Acme, East Bay, Garfield, Peninsula and Elmwood townships, underscoring that the East Bay outage sat inside a broader regional utility system.

Grand Traverse County Emergency Management also points residents to Grand Traverse Alert for boil water advisories and other emergency notifications. Until the testing came back clean, the message remained simple: boil first, then use the water.