SAN ANTONIO — As if it's been assaulted by an angry porcupine, San Antonio's water-delivery system has been poked full of holes by the drought.
What used to be 100 or so water main breaks per month rose to more than 400 in June and 700 in July. By the end of August, officials say, they expect they'll have seen at least 800 breaks.
But in a west-San Antonio neighborhood, when water was flowing in the streets from a break for an extended period, one family did more than grouse about the waste. On Vera Cruz Street, members of the Sanchez family took action, dusting off a small pump they had on hand and putting it to use by harvesting the water for their lush front-yard garden.
"We hate to see all this waste, especially in this drought that we're having," Leticia Sanchez said. "So my brother owns a sump pump and decided to hook it up to the hose and he watered our yard, which had been lacking in rain."
Sanchez said she's glad her brother thought of such a creative idea.
"I'm glad he thought of it, and actually he had been thinking about it for a week, because this has been going on for two weeks maybe," Sanchez said.
She said her brother put the pump at the curb, where there was enough water flowing to push what had been wasted into a garden hose and into their yard.
Sanchez said her brother is the family member who inherited a green thumb from their mother, who is now deceased. The brother has faithfully maintained the plants his mother left behind, and added new varieties that stood to benefit from the free bath.
"During this time when all these leaks are happening throughout the city, you would think that someone would get a bucket brigade going," Sanchez said, marveling that more of her neighbors weren't taking advantage of the free liquid resource.
San Antonio Water System Communications Manager Anne Hayden said the high number of breaks has resulted in repair crews responding to the most dangerous situations first.
"Even though we have our crews out there, as well as five contractors responding to main breaks, we're having to first respond to the main breaks that are most severe and those are the main breaks that are causing outages, or causing damage to roadways or property," Hayden said.
"There are so many main breaks, we are having to triage, just like you went into an emergency room and a person with a heart attack comes in and gets treatment before somebody with a cut finger," Hayden added. "We're having to take care of those most critical main breaks first and then we also take care of the others but maybe not as quickly."
Hayden said customers often fail to realize that before a crew can start digging to find a problem, there is preliminary work that must be completed.
"We are marking the utilities and getting the materials ready, so that when we get out there to make these repairs we can be most efficient," Hayden said, adding they are scheduling many jobs in the evenings and into the night for the safety of repair crews.
"If something is reported, even if it's severe, in the afternoon when it is most hot, we're probably going to get the critical work done, control the outage, control the flowing water first, so that we can finish the repair later in the evening when it's a little bit cooler," Hayden said.
Hayden said San Antonians should be proud to be water-conscious and concerned about breaks. She also said that even if a small break has been reported, it is important to report updates if the situation changes.
"If instead of just seeping down the street, now it's gushing? Don't assume that because you've reported it once, you don't need to report it again if it's gotten worse. Please let us know. Because if it is getting worse, we want to know about it because it will go up on the priority list," Hayden said.
While SAWS struggles to keep up, Hayden said she knows San Antonio is not alone in the fight.
"We have an exceptional drought going on in most of Texas right now and infrastructure is being affected everywhere. Large and small communities all over the state are dealing with this," Hayden said.
Speaking emphatically, Hayden said, "Believe me. We at SAWS are taking this very seriously. But when you have thousands and thousands of miles of pipe, unfortunately, you can't take care of all of the breaks at once."
To report a problem to the local water utility, click here.