SAWS battles water main backlog due to ongoing drought

SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio Water System (SAWS) crews are working to catch up on plumbing repairs caused by an ongoing drought exacerbated by an unusually dry 2022.

For residents of Georgian Oaks Drive, a babbling brook flowing along their street is far from a consolation. For three weeks now, water has been flowing from the water supply in the northern region.

“The saw went out a couple of times, you can see some of the signs on the street,” said Michele Bartonico, whose home is connected to a leaky water main. “It was a small geyser. And now it just kept increasing for the last three weeks.”

She said that around the new year, water began to flow near her water supply.

“It will start to dry up and we will have to repair the roads,” Robin McGowan said. “And will SAWS pay for it?”

McGowan lives on Orchard Hill, downstream of the leak; she worries about how much all of this could cost SAWS taxpayers.

“This has been going on for three weeks,” she said. “Thousands and thousands of gallons have just flown into the ditch.”

Ann Hayden of SAWS said the Georgian Oaks leak was a priority 3. This means low to moderate water loss, with no loss of water supply. Crews may need one to two weeks or more to reach them.

She says priority 1 leaks are those that cause outages or occur near critical infrastructure such as schools or hospitals. Priority 1 leaks are usually fixed on the same day.

“This is not something we take lightly, we work very hard to get it, we work very hard to treat it and make it safe. It’s not something we want to release without being used,” Hayden said. “The situation is such that, unfortunately, some of this water is lost due to leaks.”

She said the utility completed 3,148 plumbing repairs in 2022, a record for San Antonio.

“It was very difficult for our teams to keep up and we had to really prioritize which leaks we were going to take care of first,” Hayden said.

She said the soil in San Antonio is reacting to drought in ways that could damage underground water pipes. As a result, the 2022 drought doubled the number of water main breaks.

“Everything that is in the soil, whether it is the foundation of your house or our pipes, is subjected to a certain load, as this soil actually compresses, twists and shifts,” Hayden said.

Hayden also said that staff shortages are also making it difficult for SAWS to keep up with the load.

“Like everyone else, it’s hard to find employees right now who can fill all the available vacancies,” she said.

She said SAWS has an active recruitment program to make up for this shortfall.

“We have big advantages; we have a great salary. It’s hard work, but we also know from the people we all work with that it’s rewarding work,” Hayden said. “It’s getting out there and making sure there’s water in the area. We need to make sure that this pipe is reconnected, to make sure that all the neighbors are safe and get safe water.”

The crew actually arrived to fix the leak in Georgian Oaks on Friday afternoon. Hayden says the cost of the leaks will not be passed on to consumers. In fact, she says they’ve just revised their rates and most customers will see smaller bills starting in February.

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