ODESSA, Texas — Since Monday evening, city crews have been working to fix a broken water line.
"First of all, it was trying to identify an actual break," said Javier Joven, Mayor of Odessa. "There was a large amount of water being exited from that general area, so as they continued to try to shut off valves, some of them obviously did not work."
Since using the valves didn't stop the water, the city had to make a decision.
"The critical decision to shut down the water at the water treatment plant was at about 4 a.m.," said Joven.
Crews have a lot of work to do when it comes to removing water and fixing the pipe.
"This is what's going to happen, we're having to evacuate the water out of the crater, once that occurs, then we'll identify where the break is and then they will commence at replacing the damaged area," said Joven.
The mayor said the pipe may have broken from being old cast iron. He thinks we need to focus on infrastructure so this doesn't happen again.
"Keeping up our infrastructure is very critical, and it should of always been priority one," said Joven. "We need to get back to the basics. I've already spoken to the city manager and we will make the repairs and identify what other things need to be done."
The mayor has also worked with Judge Debi Hays to declare a state of emergency in Ector County.