JOHNSON COUNTY, Texas -- It was more than a trickle, but the water pressure is still far less than normal at Khaled Abdelkhaleq’s Johnson County home.
“And this is only for a few hours,” he said, standing at his kitchen sink with the faucet on all the way, but only a small stream flowing. “But from Saturday through Monday evening, we had no water – day or night.”
Anything that does come from the faucet must be boiled, so donated bottles are stacked in people’s yards throughout Spring Branch Estates, which is south of Mansfield and north of Venus.
Venus Middle School allowed residents to use its showers for several evenings during the week.
Abdelkhaleq said the problem began Saturday. Since then he’s received a few voicemails on his cell phone, some of them distorted, which seemed to indicate that a pipe broke at a well. He said the messages are the only communication his neighborhood has had from Mauka Water.
Operated by a company called Texas Rain, Mauka is the only water provider in Spring Branch Estates. “They have no competition,” Abdelkhaleq said. “The customer is basically at their mercy and has no other choice but to basically shut up and pay up.”
Abdelkhaleq said he is looking for lawyers who might be willing to help with legal action against Mauka.
At the well site in Spring Branch Estates, workers were making repairs Thursday afternoon. A man wearing a shirt with a Texas Rain logo and driving a Texas Rain truck refused to identify himself but said repairs were almost complete and that he expected the boil order to be lifted Friday. He also said he had nothing to say to customers.
After WFAA reached out to Texas Rain via phone and email, the company responded with an email explaining that one of the two wells that provides water to the Spring Branch Estates stopped working over the weekend.
Texas Rain said it had to call in a well repair service company which arrived Tuesday and determined that 900 feet of pipe and a pump and motor needed to be replaced. The parts had to be ordered, according to Texas Rain’s email. The company expected the well to be fully functional by the end of the day on Thursday.
Texas Rain added that customers will receive a credit on their bill.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said it has an open investigation. TCEQ records also show Mauka violated several codes in 2014 and again in 2017.