'I feel your frustration': Houston city officials address long wait times for water leak repairs

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- It's a problem that's been frustrating Houston residents and exhausting Public Works crews all summer. We've been hearing from ABC13 viewers about broken water pipes and leaks that are left gushing on city streets for days or even weeks.

During Wednesday's city council meeting, Mayor Sylvester Turner and Public Works officials addressed these concerns.

"I hear, and I feel your frustration that there is water running down the street when we are telling you not to water your yard," Carol Haddock, director of Houston Public Works, said.

City leaders said they know the issue is bad, and the record-breaking heat we saw this year, has only made matters more difficult and caused crews to race to keep up with the high number of needed repairs.

"When you have extremely hot weather, dryness, and drought, it affects not only the old pipes. It's not the old pipes that are just breaking, the new pipes that are breaking as well because the ground is shifting," Turner said.

READ MORE: Drought conditions worsen water main breaks across Houston: 'Waste of money going down the drain'

From the beginning of June to the end of last week, the City of Houston reports that Public Works has closed out 3,956 work orders. Out of that number, 3,140 were completely repaired. They determined that 816 of those were either not a leak or a leak on private property.

Houston Public Works Chief Operating Officer Randy Macchi said on average, they receive about 500 reports of water leaks per week. Mayor Turner said crews are only able to keep up with about 400 of them.

To help alleviate that heavy workload, Macchi said they've brought in a total of 12 contractors to relieve the burden on city crews.

"One of the big pushes for us to bring in all these extra contractors is so frankly, we could flip that side of it. One, so that we could honestly give our own people a little bit of a break working 24/7 around the clock in these conditions, right? This has been, I mean, the most brutal summer that I can remember," Macchi said.

RELATED: City of Houston experiences increase in active water leaks, officials say

So, what should you do if the water leak in your neighborhood still hasn't been resolved after days or weeks? Officials said the best thing you can do is to keep calling.

"When you see something, please report it. Don't assume that somebody else has already reported it. We're not afraid for you to send in multiple requests for the same week. But I would also say this. If you see something get worse, please call again because we do have prioritization on this," Macchi said.

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