HOUSTON – A nearly month-old Houston water leak has now wasted an estimated 1.6 million gallons of water, and municipal water customers and/or taxpayers in the city of Houston will most likely absorb the cost.
"The city will bear the brunt of the water loss. Taxpayers will not be billed for water leaks in the main system that are on (the) city of Houston side of the meter," Houston Public Works spokesperson Erin Jones said.
While taxpayers will not be directly billed, unrecovered water costs are typically recovered through municipal taxes and/or reflected in rates and fees.
The water leak was first reported 25 days ago, according to city 311 records.
The bill associated with the lost water is not clear, but attempts to fix the broken water line were unsuccessful last week.
Jones said the next attempt at a fix would require businesses to be notified because water in the area would be turned off.
"They've given us a note every day the last two weeks saying water could be off," Felicia Jackson, a Welayan Plaza restaurant worker, said.
On Monday, both the project manager for the city of Houston and the project manager for the contractor handling the work, T Construction LLC, said the work would be completed Monday night.