Every day buried pipes across Texas spill water into the soil, through breaks large and small. Roadwork and digging to lay fiber-optic cable often damage water mains. Extreme temperatures can shift the ground, creating fractures in decades-old lines. Some crack simply because they’ve met the end of their useful life—typically 50 to 75 years.
Enough water seeps from these broken pipes each year to meet the needs of Austin, El Paso, Fort Worth, Laredo, and Lubbock combined. It’s more than enough—186 billion gallons—to put Dallas County under a foot of H₂O. Read More
