“It’s a Mess” – Bluff Residents Lose Services As Lines are Cut
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A small river of water runs down Molly Rd. in the Bluff Haven neighborhood Wednesday morning after a boring crew struck a water line near the intersection of Richard Rd. Photo by Andy Behlen
Residents served by the Fayette County Water Control Improvement District-Monument Hill (FCWCID) were under a boil water notice Wednesday, Dec. 14, after a contractor installing fiber optic cables struck three water lines.
The damage involved two six-inch lines and one two-inch line. Dozens of residents in the Frish Auf!, Bluff Haven and Monument Hill neighborhoods lost water pressure after the lines were cut. The water utility issued a boil water notice to customers as required by regulations from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
The contractor, Housley Communications, is installing fiber optic cables across the La Grange area for Frontier Communications.
A worker for Housley told the Record on Wednesday morning that the water lines were not marked correctly by the water utility. Pct. 3 Commissioner Harvey Berckenhoff agreed. Berckenhoff said Frontier obtained a permit from the County to bore in the rights-of-way.
“They were digging seven or eight feet away from where the lines were marked,” Berckenhoff said. “It was located wrong. It’s hard to put the blame on Frontier for this one.”
Lori Steffek, office manager of FCWCID, disagreed, saying the water lines were accurately marked. The crew from Housley also struck an underground electric line on Tuesday, shutting off power temporarily to two homes. Crews from Fayette Electric Cooperative restored the power.
In addition, the water utility warned customers on Tuesday that a gas line may have been struck by the contractors, but no gas leak was found.
Housley stopped digging on Wednesday morning while officials from Frontier traveled to La Grange to investigate the problem.
Who’s to blame for the water leaks remains to be seen. However, residents on the Bluff chided Housley and Frontier for a host of other complaints.
“It’s a mess,” said Mike Wallace, President of the Monument Hill Property Owners Association. “They have a right to their easement and I understand they have a permit. The problem I see is they didn’t notify the property owners. They were getting ready to come into the subdivision and do this, and they didn’t notify individuals until they were already there.”
Wallace said the contractors parked heavy equipment on private property, damaging lawns.
“They had a big boring machine backed into my yard, not in their right-of-way, but on top of my water sprinklers,” Wallace said. “They say they’ll fix it. I can’t tell if there are damages because we don’t have water and can’t turn on sprinklers.”
“They are abusing property owners’ property,” Wallace said. “They have a right to the easement, but they don’t have a right to damage our property.”
Steffek said Monument Hill Nursing Home was not affected by the water outage. Steffek said FCWCID installed isolation valves following the historic freeze of February 2020, which allows the nursing home to get water from Fayette Water Supply Corporation in the event of an emergency. Steffek said FCWCID activated those valves on Tuesday after the first water line was cut.