The drought much of South Texas has been enduring is causing a massive number of water main breaks throughout the San Antonio area.
The summer is known as water main break season, but this year San Antonio Water System and BexarMet have been stretched to their limits as they try to keep up with all the breaks.
So what's the problem? S.A.W.S. officials said the drought is shrinking the clay soil and that's done a real number on its network of water mains.
"The soil will pull away from the main and leaves the main unsupported," explained Ann Hayden of San Antonio Water System. "Then there's a lot of flow going through because a lot of people are using water."
Increased pressure inside and outside the pipes leads to breaks. Just last month, S.A.W.S. handled about 4 times the number of breaks compared to a year ago. BexarMet has also been fighting breaks.
Officials with the water utility companies told News 4 that if we don't see more rainfall soon, we could see more and more of the breaks and probably more temporary water outages this summer.
If you think you have a water line break you can call S.A.W.S at 210-704-SAWS. For BexarMet customers, the number is 210-922-2141.
