Abilene, TX Water Use Rules: Leak Reporting Duty (2026)

Section 32-144(1)f defines "waste of water" for every potable-water customer in Abilene, and the definition is not limited to declared drought stages: it runs year-round under the City's water conservation plan. The ordinance lists three absolutely prohibited practices. First, letting water run off a property through a street, gutter, ditch, alley, or drain for more than 75 feet past the downgrade property line. " Third, running a permanently installed irrigation system with a broken sprinkler head, a head spraying over a street or parking lot because it is out of adjustment, or a head misting from high pressure.

Section 32-145(b)(6) and the escalated Stage 1 through Stage 4 provisions repeat the identical controllable-leak language, so the duty to fix a leak does not go away, and does not get any looser, once the City moves into a water alert, warning, emergency, or crisis stage. Because ownership and control of a property create a rebuttable presumption of responsibility under § 32-148, the person whose name is on the water bill is presumed to be the violator for a leak discovered on their property, though they can rebut that presumption by showing someone else caused it.