Neighborhood frustrated over lack of water

HOUSTON The Stable Gate subdivision has a nice fountain and man-made lakes and appears to be just fine when it comes to water, but we dug beneath the surface and things are certainly not right.

David Kerr considered Thursday a good day because he had running water.

"It's pretty annoying, you know," said Kerr.

For more than two weeks, Kerr and other homeowners in the subdivision have had to deal with a continuous lack of water. Often there would be no water in the morning and random shut offs in the evening.

"Hopefully we get it fixed. You got people going to school, going to work, and you can't shower, can't bathe, can't do laundry or anything," said resident Randy Schamberg.

The subdivision's water is supplied by an onsite well managed by Aqua Texas. We spoke with the company's president in Austin.

When we asked him why the homeowners don't have water, Bob Laughman replied, "They do have water. They just lost pressure."

He told us over the phone that they now believe an equipment failure in the pump is the culprit, and that they're fixing it.

"We'll pull the well, replace the parts and be back in production by tomorrow," said Laughman.

However, for homeowners who have dealt with restricted lawn watering and a boil water notice for two weeks, the promises by Aqua Texas are difficult to believe until they see clean, usable water consistently again.

"They're a public utility, they should take care of it. Whatever the problem is should be fixed," said Kerr.

Aqua Texas is owned by Aqua America, a publicly traded company that manages water wells in subdivisions like this one all around the country.