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Oakland residents look for answers; want water leak fixed before winter

People who live and work on Semple Street in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh say the road is constantly wet.

It's not clear where the water is coming from, but it runs all the way down the street.  In the winter, it has turned to ice on the sidewalk and driveways.

Homeowners and the owner of the funeral home next door reached out to Channel 11 for help getting it fixed.

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John Elachko has to put out cones in the winter so people walking to his funeral home know to be careful because the road turns into a sheet of ice.

He doesn't want this to happen this year again, so he started reaching out to both the city and Pittsburgh Water and Sewage Authority to see if someone can stop the water.

“PWSA contacted us and said it's groundwater.  They're not responsible.  It's Public Works matter. Public Works looks at it and says it's water so it falls to PWSA,” Elachko said.

His neighbor, Ken Wong, describes how bad the ice got a few winters ago.

“I put a full 50-pound bag of salt on each one every day.  In addition to chipping the ice off.  I just couldn't keep up with it because as soon as it melts, the water would pour right over it again,” Wong-Owens said.

They both tell us they've seen crews from PWSA and Public Works out here a few times but nothing has been done to stop it.

PWSA issued a statement saying, “PWSA's leak detection unit investigated this site recently and did not find any water main or service line leaks. In addition, PWSA collected a water sample in August 2017 that indicated the source appears to be groundwater. We are working with the City of Pittsburgh Department of Public Works to determine how to address the water and will collect another sample to confirm our previous findings."

WPXI’S Jennifer Tomazic reached out to Pittsburgh city officials, who said they are looking into the issue. She is hoping to have more from them coming up on Channel 11 News beginning at 5 p.m.