Live Oak Viewer Concerned City Wasting Water In Empty Field

LIVE OAK (CBS13) — A CBS13 viewer showed us cellphone video of a pipe gushing water in an empty field all day that she says is evidence her city is wasting water.

In the Live Oak neighborhood where people say their lawns and gardens are dying, homeowners were furious to see what was happening on the other side of the fence.

All day long, Sherry Peterson stared out her second-story window with a bird's-eye view of what she calls a clear case of water waste.

The Live Oak homeowner recently ripped out her dying garden.

"Bring it over to my yard, I'll use the water! But to just dump it in the dirt?" she said.

We asked the city of Live Oak, and the city manager says it's one of those cases where looks are deceiving and there isn't any water waste happening at all.

The spot is slated to become a 26-acre park with soccer fields and a storm drain detention area. He says the city is currently doing construction to pump out sand and dirt to get the clear water deep underground.

He says the water coming out now will eventually seep back into the groundwater supply.

But that explanation is tough for homeowners like Melissa Moody to stomach. She stopped watering her patchy backyard weeks ago.

"To see the city abusing the water, pumping it all day long at a soon-to-be soccer park?" she said.

In a time of conservation, neighbors say the city should take a hard look at putting off the entire project.

"Should we be putting in grass and trees in this giant area by the Buttes, when the neighbor on the next side of the fence has everything dying? I don't think that's gonna fly," Peterson said.

The city says the soccer fields will be water-efficient with Bermuda turf to minimize the amount of watering needed.