KELLER, Texas — Water has been restored to 90 properties near Mount Gilead Road after crews repaired a leak to a water line on Tuesday, the city says.
Keller Public Works responded to the leak Monday night on Mt. Gilead Road between Stegall Drive and Penny Lane, the city said in the post. A private contractor working on a telecommunications installation bored into a water line, causing it to spill 5,000 gallons of water per minute, the city said.
Monday night, about 200 homes were experiencing low water pressure and some had no water at all.
Keller Mayor Armin Mizani attributed the water main break to Spectrum.
"They were not given permission to dig," Mizani said. "My biggest frustration is they didn’t notify the city after the line was damaged."
The mayor accused Spectrum subcontractors of failing to call the city to locate municipal lines, working outside of a permitted area and not notifying the city of the break, the post reads.
"Rest assured the City of Keller will keep an accounting on all the repair costs and we expect the city/our taxpayers to be reimbursed fully for this mess," Mizani said. "In the meantime, I’ll also encourage state legislators to tighten up the screws on these companies hiring subcontractors doing shoddy work."
Spectrum issued the following statement:
"We sincerely apologize to the residents of Keller for the disruption caused by the water main break on Mt. Gilead Road. We are actively working with Keller city officials and are committed to fully cooperating as they restore water services as quickly as possible. We understand the significant inconvenience this has caused, especially during a holiday week. Additionally, we are taking comprehensive steps to ensure that similar incidents do not occur in the future."
Tina Pence has lived in the neighborhood for 10 years and said she promised herself she would be prepared for a situation like this after a bad winter left her without water. But this water line break was unexpected.
"The polar vortex a few years ago, that was an eye-opener," Pence said. "And I told myself then I would always be prepared and at least have bottles of water on hand."
The water pipe break left Deena Neason frustrated because it brought their Thanksgiving preps to a standstill and inconvenienced her family visiting from out of town for the holiday.
“We can’t shower, the restrooms aren’t properly working, and we can’t start Thanksgiving preparations,” Neason said. "I have family already in town. My mom is here from Memphis, Tennessee. I have sisters coming in today and tomorrow. For me personally, we lost our dad this year, and so this is our first year without him for the Thanksgiving holidays. I've been in Texas since 2007, typically my family from Tennessee comes here to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. So it's still a great time to be thankful and be blessed for all that we have."
The City said in a Facebook post it purchased three pallets of water and distributed them to the 86 homes impacted by the incident.
Mizani said he plans to make sure taxpayers are not stuck with the repair bill.
"My full expectation is once the city, through taxpayer money corrects these these issues, we are going to seek full reimbursement from Spectrum or the subcontractor," said Mayor MIzani, "I think that is only right."
Spectrum released a statement addressing the situation on Tuesday evening:
"We sincerely apologize to the residents of Keller for the disruption caused by the water main break on Mt. Gilead Road. We are actively working with Keller city officials and are committed to fully cooperating as they restore water services as quickly as possible. We understand the significant inconvenience this has caused, especially during a holiday week. Additionally, we are taking comprehensive steps to ensure that similar incidents do not occur in the future."