Volume of calls for water leaks in Houston higher than number of leaks, officials say

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A leaking water main has been been gushing out onto a driveway in the 1800 block of South Dairy Ashford for weeks, and the city said it's scheduled to be repaired by Sept. 3.

That's not quick enough for Debra Jatzlau, who works near the leak.

"It's been busted since Aug. 8. We reported it to 311 and the only thing that's happened is someone put out flags," Jatzalu said.

Leaking pipes in the water infrastructure are a large reason the city is moving to stage two of its drought contingency plan on Sunday.

The plan means single-family, residential customers can only water their yards on Sunday and Thursday from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. if their home address ends in an even number.

Odd-numbered homes would be limited to Saturday and Wednesday during that time, and all other customers would be allowed to water outdoors on Tuesday and Friday from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m.

"They're asking us to conserve or we're going to be fined," Jatzlau said. "What happens with the city? Why are they getting away with this?"

We've asked the public works department how many leaking pipes they're averaging at the moment, but they didn't answer that question for the second consecutive day.

The last time we were given that information was on July 17 when there were 208.

There were less than 100 on June 2.

We were able to look up the number of calls for water leaks in the City of Houston, but the volume of calls received is higher than the actual number of leaks.

There have been 4,617 calls for leaks in Houston in the last four weeks, which is up from 3,202 calls during the same timespan in 2022.

There have been 35,042 such calls in the last year, which is higher than the 27,455 calls received during the previous 12-month period.

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