By MARK REITER

BLADE STAFF WRITER

MONROE The water supply into Monroe was cut off yesterday after windy weather and frigid temperatures created an ice jam in the city s raw-water intakes in Lake Erie.

Fearing that reserves could be depleted, the city declared a water emergency shortly before noon and asked residents and businesses to limit their use.

Kevin Armstrong, water distribution superintendent, said single-digit temperatures and strong westerly winds combined to create a perfect storm that turned slushy lake water into ice as it entered the city s two water-intake cribs.

Everything mixed. They had the right ingredients for the ice to form inside the water intake, Mr. Armstrong said.

Workers at the water treatment plant discovered about 4:30 a.m. yesterday that the system wasn t drawing water from either intake.

The intakes are east of the city in Brest Bay one is about one mile offshore; the other is about a half-mile in the bay.

To meet the demands of the system s 15,000 users, the city began pumping water from the River Raisin and sending it to the treatment plant.

A connector that the city has into the South County Water District also was used to obtain water the district receives from the city of Toledo for its customers in southern Monroe County.

Strong westerly winds during the weekend pushed water out of Lake Erie s western basin.

That lowered the lake s surface near Monroe to the point that the water intakes, normally 14 to 16 feet deep, began sucking in slushy ice from the top five feet or so of water, said Barry LaRoy, Monroe s director of water and utilities.

It s a very rare occurrence, Mr. LaRoy said.

A water emergency was last declared for the Monroe system in December, 1989, when ice and tiny zebra mussels clogged the flow of water through an intake pipe in the lake.

Mr. LaRoy said a similar ice condition developed once during the late 1950s, too.

Other communities that draw water from western Lake Erie, including Toledo, Oregon, Port Clinton, and Sandusky, reported no supply problems yesterday.

Toledo s water-intake pipe extends three miles from shore, making it less susceptible to ice forming around its opening, said John Walthall, commissioner of the Toledo Division of Water Treatment.

We do have issues with ice, but we have a bubbler system that keeps the surface area broken up as best as we can, Mr. Walthall said. We have around-the-clock staffing during this difficult time.

Mr. Armstrong said Monroe s ice jam was broken loose late yesterday after water was backflushed from a pumping station into the water intakes.

The water treatment plant began drawing water again from the intakes about 2 p.m., but at a slower rate than usual because of concerns that ice could form again inside the intake cribs

.

We are pumping at a slower rate than normal to avoid ... an ice jam. The faster the water is sucked in, the more chance that you are going to get ice, the superintendent said.

Monroe city employees went door-to-door to businesses with notices on the emergency water declaration. Restaurants, coin-operated laundries, and car washes were among the businesses targeted in the sweep.

Fino s Family Restaurant on South Monroe Street was among the eateries that complied with the request and closed.

I don t like it. It is not good for my business, but what am I going to do? asked Mike Gojcaj, owner of the restaurant

.

The water emergency remained in effect last night, but Mr. Armstrong said the restrictions would be lifted early today if water levels in the reserves were restored.

He said the weather forecast for less-frigid temperatures could allow the system to speed up the flow of water being pumped through the intake.

I think if we can get through [Monday night], I think we will be all right, Mr. Armstrong said. But right now we are not at the stage that I feel comfortable lifting the emergency.

The biggest customers of the Monroe water system are the power plants operated by DTE Energy.

Scott Simons, a spokesman for the utility, said operations at Fermi 2 and the Monroe Power Plant were not disrupted yesterday.

However, Mr. Simons said he didn t know if the utility s water intake crib that serves the plants was affected by ice or slushy water.

Several Toledo Edison power plants, including the Davis-Besse nuclear station in Ottawa County, also draw cooling water from Lake Erie.

But Davis-Besse is shut down for refueling and Richard Wilkins, a utility spokesman, said he was unaware of any water-supply problems at any of the other plants.

Monroe s municipal system also supplies water to Petersburg, Monroe Charter Township, and the villages of Dundee and Maybee, and areas of Raisinville, Exeter, London, and Ida Townships.

One of Monroe s raw water-intake cribs also is used by Frenchtown Township, which operates its own water distribution and storage system.

Businesses in the township were not affected by the water emergency.

Staff writers Ignazio Messina and David Patch contributed to this report.

Contact Mark Reiter at: markreiter@theblade.com or 734-241-3610.

First Published January 22, 2008, 9:58 a.m.