Crews repair major leak in San Augustine water line; boil water notice still in effect

SAN AUGUSTINE, Texas (KTRE) - The City of San Augustine says work crews have repaired a major water leak from a 16-inch water main transmission line in the City Lake addition.

The city said emergency repairs were completed by 6 p.m. Wednesday and pressure was returning to the system.

Earlier in the afternoon, crews had pumped as much water as possible to the towers to ensure customers would have water until the valves off feeding the 16-inch line were turned off.

Chris Anding, San Augustine’s water superintendent, said getting the line repaired was vital for the city.

“Right now, this is the only line that feeds that tower up there,” Anding said.

This leak comes after many water woes for the city during the freeze that rolled into East Texas last week.

“We lost pressure in one of our tanks, we lost water, we had a pump malfunction,” Anding said. “Just things that are weather-related that you have to deal with.”

Anding isn’t sure that the weather is the culprit for the leak in the line, which was installed in 1956.

“Our city has about a 65-year-old infrastructure,” Anding said. “We spent a lot of money the last several years to upgrade our system. To try and get it up, you know, but it takes a lot of money.”

Right now, the city is already working to remedy the aging line with a $3 million grant to replace three miles of pipe.

They’ll be looking to accept a bid for the construction in February or March next year.

“It’s going to be a new transmission line run to the water plant down 2213 to the towers to replace this line,” Anding said.

Anding said the failing infrastructure might need more care put into it than that to make the city’s water system run without issues.

“We’ve got 29 miles of water pipe. You can spend a billion dollars and still not be able to do it all,” Anding said.

The City of San Augustine has not said when a boil water notice would be lifted.

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