Update: City responds below.
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price said today that the city of Dallas needs to respond more quickly when water mains bust, something he and other commissioners said Tuesday is likely to happen more frequently as the city’s water infrastructure continues to age.
Last month, an eight-inch pipe burst beneath the Dallas County records building, flooding its basement and causing what Price said will be about $10 million in damages. City officials responded to that incident in about 15 minutes, according to this post by colleague Rudy Bush.
But Price said Dallas Water Utilities is typically too slow in responding. When another water main busted Monday at about 8 p.m., he said crews didn’t respond till after 11 p.m. “Once they arrived, they shut it down within 15 minutes. They executed well,” he said, “but the issue is the response time.”
(I’ve asked DWU for comment, and will update this post when I hear back.)
Update: Charles Stringer of the city water department tells me that what happened last night was not a water main break. Instead, he said a two-inch gasket blew out.
He also said the response last night was only slow because the first call reporting the water leak gave the wrong address.
The first call came in about 8:37 p.m., and a crew was dispatched to 2733 North Stemmons Freeway, but reported back at 10:15 p.m. that there was no leak at that address.
A second call came in at 10:43 p.m. reporting a water leak at 2377 North Stemmons. He said the crew was on site by about 11:15 p.m., and the problem was fixed by midnight.
Stringer said on average four to six water mains break in the city each day, and said he’s proud of his team’s response times. They typically respond within 30 minutes, he said.
“We’re constantly looking at our staffing levels, to see where we can justify additional personnel,” he said. “Unfortunately by their very definition, emergency situations don’t happen all the time.”
There was no damage from last night’s water leakage, Price said.
County officials also said Tuesday that they hope the damaged floors of the Record Building can be reopened by June 28, though it will operate initially through the use of generators and full power won’t be restored until sometime later.
In other business, county departments continue to respond to requests to trim their budgets by 10 percent, as the county struggles to address a $58 million deficit.
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