About 30 homes were without water for most of the day Saturday, Aug. 10, after crews working on the Heather Hill detention basin apparently disturbed a water main, causing a rupture. 

Flossmoor Mayor Michelle Nelson said excavations near the water main moved the soil it was resting on and the pipe, which she thought was possibly 75 years old, broke at a T-shaped junction. 

She said the abrupt angle is not ideal, and the section was replaced with two 45-degree angled joints, which will allow better water flow. 

Nelson said a site supervisor knocked on doors of the homes affected by the incident in an effort to advise residents about the problem. 

Some residents apparently did not get any notice about the situation, however. Two people who live in the immediate vicinity contacted the Chronicle and said they were frustrated by the lack of communication from the village. 

They said water service was interrupted about 9 a.m.

Darlene Brooks said she was not home when the main break happened but learned that water was off from her elderly mother, who was there during the day. She was concerned that no estimate of the outage was provided so residents could make contingency plans.

Crystal Cleggett also said she received no notice about the problem from the village. 

“The lack of communication is disturbing,” she said, noting how disruptive it is to have no water service and no idea how long the interruption in service will last.

Cleggett is the named plaintiff in a lawsuit filed early in July asking the court to intervene in the construction of the storm water detention basin adjacent to Heather Hill School. The suit cites residents’ concerns about children’s safety as the main reason for opposing the structure.

Nelson said she sympathizes with residents affected by the loss of water service and said the village tries to give residents as much notice as possible when problems occur.

The village posted a notice on its Facebook page shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday noting that the main had two failures during the day but had been repaired and service was restored. The post included a link to more information on the village website.

“The water distribution system did not lose pressure, and no action was required by our operators,” officials said in the website post. “A typical water main break like each of these does not require a homeowner to take any action either, as it is very common for Public Works to repair a water main ‘live’ and/or limit the number of water users impacted by a water shut off.”