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

Chapter 6-4 (Water Conservation) applies to anyone who uses, directs, manages or allows the use of Austin Water's potable water, whether billed retail or wholesale, per Sec. 6-4-3. Sec. 6-4-12 (Water Waste Prohibited) folds an unrepaired leak into that chapter's waste ban: Subsection (B)(1) makes it unlawful to fail to repair a controllable leak, expressly naming a broken sprinkler head, a broken drip irrigation line, a broken pipe, or a leaking valve. The same subsection reaches related irrigation-system failures, a broken head, a head out of adjustment spraying onto pavement, or a misting head from excess pressure, and bans irrigation runoff that flows 50 feet or more onto a street or ponds more than a quarter inch deep on an impervious surface.

Two affirmative defenses apply. Under Subsection (C), a person actively repairing, testing, or calibrating a system at the time of the alleged violation has a defense if the work was code-compliant and the technician was on site. Under Subsection (D), a leak on a property officially accepted into a government-assisted housing repair program is excused if the repair falls within the program's funded scope and the person is not in default of the program. Austin Water enforces Chapter 6-4 through three channels named in Sec.

6-4-52: an administrative hearing under Chapter 2-13, a civil action under Chapter 54 of the Texas Local Government Code, or a criminal prosecution in Municipal Court, where the person named on the water account is presumed responsible for a violation at that service address.