Weatherford community experiences another sewage leak

A Parker County community is dealing with a second potentially dangerous sewage leak in less than a year.

The problem in Weatherford has some homeowners worried about contamination from the wastewater. The city says the leak is under control and is not a health hazard.

Despite the city’s reassurance, residents remain on edge after the second sewer leak near their homes in a year.

Wanda Boyles is living with uncertainty after a sewage leak along her 42-acre spread.

“The last time it happened they promised it was fixed, said it's not going to happen again,” she explained. “Well, obviously, it did.”

Boyles is in the Weatherford city limits but still relies on well water.

“It concerns me terribly bad for my well,” she said.

Since late Sunday afternoon, it's been a steady caravan of pump trucks to the water department's lift station across a bridge at the city limits.

"They're using trucks to pump that water out,” said City Spokesman Blake Rexroat.

A lift station sends sewage on its way to the treatment plant. The one on Tin Top Road is on the edge of 3-mile Branch Creek which feeds into the Brazos River about seven miles away.

The city says a pipe leading from the lift station developed what they describe as a slow leak.

Weatherford says there was a sewage leak in the same area last November.

In both cases, the repair is a messy, smelly combination of trying to pump water out so the line can be fixed.

“They know the sector, so that's why they're bypassing and pumping that water out,” said Rexroat.

The city had crews out around the clock making repairs.

Boyles says after the last leak, the city came out to inspect her well. She's anxious to know how much the leak was this time.

Besides Boyles, there are at least two other homes next to the leak and several more homes downstream.

Weatherford says it's preparing a full report for state environmental authorities.