SAN ANTONIO – We hear about water main breaks all of the time during the summer. It’s a problem connected to the scorching heat.
“It sounded bad,” John Rodriguez said. “He was like, ‘It’s hail.’ And I’m like, ‘It’s 100 degrees outside. Where is it hailing?’”
It’s not hail, but the damage is still just as bad for Rodriguez’s Mustang.
It’s summer time, so that means water main breaks in San Antonio. Tonight we are speaking with @MySAWS about why this happens and with one woman who’s vehicle was significantly damaged by a recent break pic.twitter.com/hnHYL2fyrk
— Leigh Waldman (@LeighWaldman) July 3, 2023
“My whole windshield is shattered,” Rodriguez said. “There’s rocks inside my car. There’s mud. It caused all these dents on top of my car and trunk.”
The water main break on Broken Lance Drive happened last Thursday. Rodriguez’s girlfriend, Brenda Valdovinos, says she first noticed the water around the sidewalk that morning.
“It got worse, and it like exploded,” Valdovinos said. “And all of the rocks came shooting out from there and onto our house.”
Days later, the rocks on Valdolvinos’ roof are still there. You can see where the water main was repaired on the road, but unfortunately, SAWS says not much can be done to prevent this from happening during the summertime.
“We have over 13,000 miles of pipe underground,” said Lilliana Gonzalez, a senior communication specialist for SAWS. “That’s a lot of pipe. And in a city the size of ours that’s serving over 2 million customers, you are going to see breaks no matter what.”
The breaks are caused by the summer temperatures and soil drying out, causing the ground to shift, making pipe bursts more likely.
Gonzalez said it’s also important that SAWS customers follow the stage two water restrictions that we are under.
“As customers, what we can all do is do our part to not put extra demand on the system,” Gonzalez said. “So we are following those rules, then things should be very manageable. If we are not, then you’re putting more stress on the system, and you’re more likely to see breaks,” Gonzalez said.
Last month, Santikos Palladium and other businesses around The Rim were inundated with water after a major break.
Most businesses were back up and running that night.
As for Rodriguez and Valdovinos, they’re still dealing with the after-effects of the water main break on their street, hoping it doesn’t happen again.
“It is concerning,” Valdovinos said. “They were there, like all night, trying to patch it up and fix it. But who knows if it’ll happen again.”