BIDDEFORD — The tenants of six first-floor apartments at the Mill at Saco Falls were evacuated Saturday after elevated water levels of the Saco River caused a breach in the river wall.

Although no water has entered the 66-unit apartment complex, which opened last fall, tenants were evacuated as a precaution, said the building’s developer Nathan Szanton.

“We don’t know why it happened,” said Szanton, speaking of the breach. “It could be due to the building being 160 years old or something disturbed by construction.”

Significant construction was conducted during renovation of the building.

The leaking was first noticed on Wednesday when several inches of water accumulated along the front of the building facing the river, said Szanton. Water had begun to flow through the flood gate that had allowed water into the canals located under the mill buildings, said Code Enforcement Officer Roby Fecteau.

When the mills were in use, the underground water system was used to produce steam and power machinery, he said.

The gate had since been blocked with boulders and rocks, said Fecteau, but it was breached when warm weather on Thursday and Friday resulted in rapid snow melt, raising the water 1 1/2 feet by early Saturday morning, he said.

In addition to the flood gate breach, the foundation of vertical brick structure encasing a sewer pipeline has been undermined. If this falls in such a way that more water is released, it could cause flooding in the building, he said.

Evacuation of the lower floor of the apartment complex was ordered as a precaution in case this worst-case scenario took place, said Fecteau.

“We are prepared for the worst and hoping for the best,” he said.

However, he said, he is in constant communication with those controlling the dam system that feeds to and from the Saco River, and no significant additional water elevation is anticipated.

After the rise in water was first noted last week, numerous 30-pound sandbags were piled along the riverside of the building in an attempt to contain the flooding, said Szanton.

Sandbags will be used again to in an effort to provide a temporary fix. This time 1,500 pound bags will be lifted by crane and used to fill the gap.

This effort, said Szanton, will take place on Wednesday or Thursday. He said he hopes to return tenants to their ground floor apartments after that.

Currently, his company is paying to lodge tenants at the Hampton Inn in Saco.

A permanent fix won’t be possible until the summer when the water elevation drops, said Szanton. At that time, he said, the hole will be filled in with concrete.

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.