Subcontractor fails to report cut gas line in Cypress, resident says

CYPRESS, Texas – One day after the Fourth of July, some unexpected fireworks almost went off at Lisa Eckhardt's home in Cypress.

"My husband immediately knew that it was a gas leak," she said.

It wasn't the scent, but the visual that caught his attention.

"He saw bubbles flowing up from under the ground, which told him immediately, there was a leak and that that they must have hit the gas line," Eckhardt said.

According to Eckhardt, a subcontractor working for AT&T began digging up her backyard Monday for a new fiber optic line.

On Thursday, they noticed the leak.

"I assumed that the crew did not know they had hit the line, because if they knew they would have reported it or they would have told us," she said.

Once her husband noticed it, Eckhardt tried to tell the crew working in her yard.

"Hey I just wanted to let you know, there is a leak in our gas line in our backyard where you were digging. You better not go back there until CenterPoint has a chance to come out and do the repair. And he said to me, 'Oh yeah, we knew about it, but when it happened, it was too late in the day to do anything about it,'" Eckhardt said.

The incident is the latest involving an AT&T contractor.

Channel 2 investigator Amy Davis first exposed a pattern of similar incidents in February. KPRC told AT&T of Thursday's incident and the company said it is looking into it.

Eckhardt now has reservations about other projects in the neighborhood.

"What frightens me more is that there could be more leaks that did get covered up," she said.

AT&T released the following statement:

"This incident involved one of our general contractors. When we found out what happened, we contacted the general contractor immediately and this subcontractor crew will no longer be working for them."


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