MAHANOY CITY -- People in part of Schuylkill County have been conserving water for weeks as the Mahanoy City area is dealing with a drought situation.
While residents are conserving water, there is some concern the water authority may be wasting it.
Early last week, people near East Mahanoy Street noticed a service line break, causing water to leak into the streets and even into some homes.
During a drought situation, they expected to see crews from the water authority repairing the leak the same day but it was only on Monday that they saw crews finally show up.
"We took notice about a week ago that there was trickling coming up from the road. Then it just seemed to get a little bit bigger," said Joan Ford.
After a few days, the trickle of water coming from a broken service line began spilling water into the basements of nearby homes.
But what has been more concerning to residents like Joan Ford is that the water authority has been asking people for weeks to conserve water because of a drought situation.
"We have jugs of water and stuff in here to try and conserve. We use paper plates and all too," said Ford.
Yet the water authority has let an unrepaired leak waste water for nearly a week.
Residents around here are wondering why it took so long.
"It's a service line leak," said Mahanoy Township Authority GM Joseph Fegley. "We found out about it on Wednesday, we had some disturbances and we got to it as quick as we can."
Fegley heads the water authority and says it's been equally concerning for the water authority to be dealing with this leak and others.
Crews were actually busy last week repairing leaks in two other areas. The hope is to have this leak repaired within a day.
"We were out here first thing this morning with it. We had a leak on Friday we fixed. Everybody sees one leak and thinks that is the only one we had."
The water authority says it has also brought in a contractor who specializes in finding any other pipes leaking underground with the hope of reducing any more wasted water during the drought situation in the Mahanoy City area.