Water leaks around San Ramon home; source unknown

SAN RAMON, Calif. (KGO) -- Wasted water is something you don't want to see in a drought. In one East Bay neighborhood no one has been able to find the source of a water leak that has been ongoing 24 hours a day, for the past seven months.

Residents and officials can't figure out why water is seeping into a yard and down a street.

These are the worst of times it seems when it comes to lack of water, but homeowner Arlene Gallegos has to put rubber boots on just to walk in her backyard due to an abundance of water from an unknown source.

"It's what we call the mystery water, because we can't seem to identify what the source, or where the source of the water is coming from," Gallegos said.

For seven months, the water has flowed, apparently from the hillside behind Gallegos' home. It flows in the front too, down the street and into a storm drain. It is a fact not lost on the neighbors along Wildhorse Drive.

"If nature's providing the water, who am I to stop it? If it was somebody wasting it, that would be different but as far as we can tell it's fresh water," neighbor Daniel Gilliland told ABC7 News.

East Bay Municipal Utility District does have a pumping station close by and plenty of pipes that have had problems in the past.

San Ramon assistant city manager Eric Figueroa said. "EBMUD has done extensive testing out there to determine if there's a leak and they have detected no leak so far, and we at the city have been working and we can't determine a leak either, so it is a mystery."

"So we will be the only yard in San Ramon that's going to be green, but I would trade the brown yard for none of these water problems anytime," Gallegos said.

There are natural springs in the area, but if that's the cause, so far no one has been able to find it.

For water rebate information from Bay Area water suppliers, click here. And Click here for tips on how to conserve. To learn more about how to report water wasters #WhereYouLive, click here.

For full coverage on the drought, click here.