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

13 Water Conservation, lists practices the city defines as 'wasting water' and 'absolutely prohibited' for every person who receives water from the El Paso Water Utilities Public Service Board. Subsection B(2) singles out leaks: once a customer discovers a leak, the code gives five working days to repair it before the ongoing leak itself becomes a violation, regardless of whether the leak is inside the home, in an irrigation line, or elsewhere on the property. The same subsection also prohibits letting irrigation water pond or run off a property onto a street, alley, gutter, ditch or storm drainage system (B(1)), and bans hosing down sidewalks, driveways, parking areas or patios outside of emergencies (B(3)), both part of the same wasting-water framework a leak falls under.

040 goes further and formally declares that water flowing from any property into a public right-of-way or storm sewer is a public nuisance, giving both the city attorney's office and the public service board's attorney authority to seek injunctive relief in addition to any criminal prosecution. There is no separate leak-reporting hotline requirement in the chapter, the duty runs to the property owner or occupant to find and fix the leak within the five-day clock once it is discovered, not to notify the city first.