Residents of a Hoover neighborhood say they hope Birmingham Water Works (BWWB) will fix a leaking pipe that has been soaking the road since last year, now that the company is fully staffed.

Beginning at the top of the sloping hill of Daphne Lane in Hoover drivers see a road turned dark with water continuously pouring from underneath a BWWB pipe covering.

“You hear about water waste, so it just breaks your heart to see it pouring out of there every day,” said Amy Benschoter, the person living closest to the leak.

Benschoter said she first noticed the leak in August of last year and said she has contacted the utility for assistance multiple times since. She added that just over a month ago she went as far as grabbing the attention of a BWWB employee who was driving around the neighborhood.

“There was a truck out here driving around, so I went and grabbed him and showed him the place where it was leaking and they still haven’t done anything,” said Benschoter. “I’ve had a plumber up here working on my house and he even asked me if I’d reported that because he said it was a lot of water.”

She said she was assured after several conversations with customer service in August and the months following that someone would be out to repair the leak in a matter of days.

When a BWWB truck with “heavy equipment” drove by earlier this month Benschoter said the neighborhood residents had hoped the employee was there to repair the leak. They were disappointed when the truck left without inspecting the pipe covering, she said.

This leak is one of two close to Daphne Lane with another slower-flowing leak coming from a resident’s yard just around the corner at the intersection of Whiting Road and Georgetown Place.

Benschoter said the slower leak has been there even longer, since around the beginning of summer 2022.

Laurie Lawson, who lives at the bottom of the hill, expressed frustration with BWWB announcing a rate increase while she watches gallons of wasted water pool in front of her mailbox each day.

“My first thought when they were advertising about the rate increase a month ago or two months ago or whatever – I was just like well maybe if they took care of their own business and weren’t wasting so much water they could save some money along the way,” said Lawson.

BWWB announced in late November that customers would be seeing a 3.9% increase on their bills starting in 2023.

BWWB General Manager Michael Johnson previously said part of the cause for this rate increase was an 8.12% or nearly $9.5 million hike in the utility’s Operation and Maintenance budget.

Nearly a quarter of the additional cost comes from the price to treat water being distributed to customers. Johnson said this would cost nearly $2 million more in 2023 due to chemical vendors increasing their rates.

Benschoter said that it was discouraging to know that her money was being spent on chemicals to treat water that wasn’t being used.

In addition to monetary and waste concerns, the leak also created a safety hazard for drivers during last month’s cold snap.

“When it was really, really cold, I had to go the other way on the street to get out because that water [on the road] froze over,” said Lawson.

Benschoter added that she was worried about people turning onto her street, as the leak is positioned directly uphill from a stop sign. So, she said, if someone were to turn onto Daphne Lane quickly, while the water was frozen, the road hazard could cause a wreck.

Lawson said both she and another neighbor, other than Benschoter, had called the water works multiple times with no results.

“I don’t know what else we can do. It’s like nobody wants to listen,” said Lawson.

Benschoter said that she understands that the company has been busy the last several months trying to remedy a more than a year’s worth of billing issues.

In their last meeting of 2022 BWWB said that 99% of BWWB customers were now receiving timely bills after numerous customers complained of receiving bills late or not at all or receiving estimated bills for incorrect amounts for the better part of a year.

BWWB spokesman Rick Jackson attributed this to the discontinuation of mass estimation which was made possible by the utility obtaining a full staff.

Benschoter said now that the billing issues have been resolved, she hopes that Daphne Lane will become a priority.

“They don’t even have to come out here and fix it right away,” said Benschoter. “I know that will take some time. But just a flag or a mark or someone lifting the cover to look at it would let us know that at least they know about it and they’re working on it.”

On Jan. 10 Jackson, who said the utility only learned of the leak on Dec. 30, also said that the leak would be repaired “within the next few of days.”

Jackson wrote the following in an email to a Lede reporter today.

“The scope of work will include the replacement of two (2) water valves,” wrote Jackson. “Also, the Birmingham Water Works repair is leak based upon the below priority levels:”

• Level 1 – Leaks that cause little to no water within the distribution system issues. Response/Repair time: Immediate attention or under 24 hours.
• Level 2 – Leaks that cause low water pressure and volume issues. Response/Repair time: Within 14 days
• Level 3 – Leaks that cause no water pressure or volume issues. Damp paving. Response/Repair time: Within 14 -28 days

“Note: The repair of this work is pending all utilities being located as required by the State of Alabama. In addition, material availability determines repair.”

According to BWWB’s 2023 budget, pipe replacement should be a top priority this year.

Although the utility trimmed their Capital Budget by a little over 6% in an attempt to keep cost down, they were able to dedicate over one third of the total budget, or $25 million to their pipeline replacement program.

This makes the program the most expensive BWWB project slated for 2023 by several million dollars. The second most expensive project, which focuses on water treatment, comes in at $6.4 million.

“BWW has an aggressive plan to replace over 600 miles of galvanized steel and unlined cast iron pipe, which accounts for over 67% of our maintenance activity,” Jackson previously told The Lede. “Replacing this pipe will result in reduced maintenance cost over time and better service to our customers.”