WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Water leaks are common, but lately, some people of Warner Robins say they've noticed a lot more of them and longer waits to get them repaired. In fact, an open records request shows the city of Warner Robins has lost millions of gallons of water to leaks in the past year.
Joey McDuffie, the city's water supervisor, says fixing a water leak takes time.
"The customer comes outside and sees a leak, they call the utility department, then they dispatch somebody out here. We come out here, we look at the leak determine if on the customer's size or the City of Warner Robins' side," he explains. "We stick some white flags in the yard. In the state of Georgia, we have to give them 48 hours to mark all underground utilities, so we send a crew out."
Warner Robins has had 876 leaks reported this year, and as crews work to catch up, people grow impatient. Kevin Posinski says a water line in his yard has been leaking for two years, but that leak isn't listed in the records released by the city.
"We called Warner Robins to have them come out and check and make sure it wasn't our side of the property make sure it was their problem. They came out, checked it, said it was their problem, put up a bunch of flags, spray-painted my yard, then that's it," he said.
Down the street, Matthew Reis says his calls went unanswered.
"The main thing is how long they let it leak for. We called in pretty regularly to let them know it was going on. It took them a long time to fix it -- at least nine months -- did start to see settling in my driveway, a lot of cracks and stuff," Reis said.
According to an open records request, the longest active water leak came in May of 2020, with the city saying leaks could cost $100 to $10,000 to repair, but McDuffie says they're working on it.
"They just ended up piling over time, and we're doing the best we can," McDuffie said.
Those leaks cost the city an estimated $16,000. McDuffie says several things can cause a leak, and the repair time is based on the size of the leak.