HOUSTON — City Council approved the spending of nearly $50 million to fix water leaks around Houston.
The $48-million budget will be spent on emergency water leak repairs.
Public Works officials said that even with the recent rain, the drought dried out the soil and caused significant ground shifting.
The new money will be used to hire more contractors to inspect and fix the leaks.
Increase in calls
City officials said that since June 1, city crews and contractors have completed more than 4,200 water leak repairs.
They also said they've been averaging more than 500 active leaks per week since the same date, more than five times more than the number reported to 311 during the prior six months.
Between June 1 and Sept. 30, 311 said it received more than 19,000 calls about water leaks (including duplicate calls).
Getting help
New contractors are getting right to work.
"They're on it today, so, they're out there. We've had a number of them that have been out there, 10 of them that we hired, and we brought on two more with this vote," Mayor Pro-Tem Dave Martin said.
City officials said they've had to prioritize which leaks get fixed first.
Resident's experience
A Timbergrove resident told KHOU 11 News that he reported a leak about a month ago and someone came out to check it out about a week later.
He said he was happy because he thought it was going to get fixed, but it turned out that the worker was just putting in a ticket for the next person.
Ryan Griepp said the next guy told him that his best bet would be to call 311 repeatedly. That's when his neighbor made him some signs to put in his yard asking for help.
After four visits to inspect the leak, there's still no timetable for when it will be fixed.
"If you can afford to be sending this many people out, you can afford to send out the crew to fix it," Griepp said.
The member of City Council that represents Griepp's neighborhood, which lies in District C, is Abbie Kamin. She had this bit of advice for anyone dealing with a water leak.
"I can’t speak to any particular leak without looking into it specifically, but residents, after they report to 311, can let our office know ... so that we can personally monitor and track it and make sure crews are going out there," Kamin said.
She said some of the delays when it comes to fixing non-emergency leaks are because other crews have to come out first to mark utilities.
Kamin and Griepp are both hopeful that the new influx of money will help get the fixes done faster.