SAN ANTONIO — Hundreds of gallons of water gushed down a far-west-side street over the past few weeks.
Residents say a tiny trickle at the corner of Blue Larkspur and Fort Marcy quickly turned into a stream.
“Almost a month ago, I noticed the leak,” said Robert DeKeno. “I went over there to see if it was a sprinkler system. It wasn’t and it just got worse.”
“Three weeks later, there was water all the way down to the end of the development,” said Robert’s wife, Kristen DeKeno. “It’s just flowing.”
San Antonio Water System (SAWS) was notified about the leak in the Potranco Run neighborhood.
“There was no sense of urgency whatsoever,” said Robert. “First, there were little flags, like, ‘We know it’s happening.’ They put up a sign but didn’t work on it right away.”
As water continued to pour into the streets, more than mud and debris was unearthed. The leak brought a flood of concern.
“With the water shortage and the drought, it just seems like if that was a big issue, they would have fixed that,” said one resident who didn’t want to be identified.
“Thousands of gallons of water just wasted,” Robert said.
According to SAWS, the leak was recently upgraded from a level three priority to a level two.
It was fixed Tuesday afternoon.
While no cause was given, a spokesperson said SAWS' staffing isn’t keeping pace with the number of calls.
Residents worry the impact will ripple out.
“Fix the leaks sooner,” urged Kristen. “I mean, we are paying a lot for water to begin with. When we see it leaking, it’s not fair to the environment and it’s not fair to the tenants.”
According to SAWS, there’s no way to measure how much water was lost due to the leak.
The water service would not say how long it typically takes to fix a leak. However, a spokesperson claims SAWS responds to about 200 calls a month. This summer, SAWS reportedly responded to about 650 calls a month.
