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City of Houston fixes broken water line weeks later
FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace has more after speaking with homeowners who were affected.
HOUSTON - You can see water rushing out of a broken pipe at Pagewood and Stoney Brook in southwest Houston. Houston Public Works says the extraordinary heatwave and drought have made it difficult to fix leaks.
Residents in the 7600 Block of Meadowvale say they first reported the gusher on Saturday, August 19.
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The next day, they say city workers put up yellow tape and that was it.
Then we aired our first report on Thursday, August 24, that was 19 days ago.
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Residents questioned why nothing was being done since we're in a drought and the city is restricting water use.
We emailed Public Works at around 3pm Monday afternoon. It could be a coincidence, but shortly after that crews showed up to fix it.
"It's great that they're here fixing it now, but it should have taken a lot quicker," said resident Spencer Harris.
Some residents were keeping track of how much water was being lost while the city is imposing restrictions on Houstonians.
"We actually had a couple of neighbors pumping water out of it to water their lawns," Harris said. "They were calculating 60 gallons a minute, just on the water coming down in this direction, which is probably only half of it. So maybe 100 to 120 gallons a minute, and it was flowing constantly 24-7."
We also found water spewing in the 3300 block of Weslayan and the 1500 block of Tulane. Public Works says it's aware and scheduling repairs.
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While the residents on Meadowvale finally get some relief, this is going on just a quarter of a mile away.
Since June, Public Works says city employees and contractors have closed about 4,000 work orders related to water leaks.
Call 311 to report water leaks and contact 311 again if the leak becomes worse.