A city-owned water line in Clintonville has been leaking for more than two months, sending water down neighborhood streets, chewing up pavement into potholes, and leaving residents asking why nobody from the city has fixed it. Neighbors say they first spotted the leak along West North Broadway Street in early August, and it still hasn't stopped.
According to ABC 6, neighbors noticed the leak on Aug. 1, and resident Kim Balzano says she reported it to the city on Aug. 10. Since then, the water has continued flowing from West North Broadway down Hennepin Avenue and eventually out toward Brighton Road, a path ABC 6 crews witnessed firsthand. Balzano said the lack of a repair date has left residents frustrated as water keeps pouring into the street.
Fox 28, which first reported the dispute, published the residents' account of a city-owned water line that has leaked for more than two months, flooding nearby streets and raising concerns about wasted water and taxpayer money. Homeowners in the area say crews have patched potholes along the wet roadway, but the fixes never hold up for long.
A Near-Miss on Two Wheels
Balzano said she watched a motorcyclist nearly lose control after hitting a deep puddle caused by the standing water. “He was struggling controlling it and that could cause an accident,” she said, describing the kind of hazard she worries will only get worse. She also said potholes have developed to the point that blacktop has washed into yards, while pedestrians on nearby sidewalks have been sprayed by passing cars.
With colder weather approaching, Clintonville homeowners say they're increasingly worried that the standing water could turn into sheets of ice. A homeowner on Brighton Road, whose property sits along the water's path, said he was frustrated watching water and taxpayer resources go to waste while the leak went unchecked for months. “Where's the accountability?” he asked, according to the same report, adding that a significant leak on a five-lane road should be treated as a priority.
Residents Say They Got the Runaround
Balzano said she was told the leak had been placed on a repair list but was never given a timeline. She said a water department representative at one point asked her whether she still had water, and she felt residents were dismissed when they raised concerns. She said she was ultimately told the leak was not a priority because residents' water service was unaffected, and again, no repair date was offered.
The frustration cuts both ways, the Brighton Road homeowner noted: he said the city gave him just 14 days to repair a leak on his own property or face a water shutoff, a timeline he contrasted with the city's own two-month delay on its line. He also told the outlet that a series of aging water lines in the Clintonville neighborhood are contributing to similar breaks nearby.
City Cites a Spike in Leaks
A Columbus water department spokesperson acknowledged the delay, saying the department has been handling more leaks than usual and has spent much of its time addressing breaks caused by contractors. “Two months is well beyond our goal to repair any leak,” the spokesperson said. The department said leaks are prioritized according to severity and potential impact, though the agency was unavailable to speak further with ABC 6 on Monday because its office was closed for Columbus Day.
Residents say all they want now is a clear repair timeline and for the leak to finally be stopped. The complaints land amid a broader pattern across Columbus: the city saw its highest number of water-main breaks in 2025 since 2014, according to NBC4 Columbus, with officials pointing to 1950s-era and galvanized pipes as the most frequent culprits. The city has said its annual investment in the water system is rising to between $100 million and $130 million as it targets those aging lines.
That investigation found that between Jan. 24 and Feb. 28 alone, the Columbus Division of Water handled 288 repairs at a cost of nearly $1.9 million, with individual fixes typically running between $5,000 and $8,000. Earlier this year, winter weather brought the scale of the problem into sharp relief: WOSU reported the city was addressing more than 60 water-main breaks after a winter storm, with breaks stretching from German Village to Clintonville and the Hilltop. Columbus Water Assistant Administrator Brian Haemmerle said at the time that more breaks were likely as freezing temperatures continued.
Clintonville has seen this kind of damage before. A break at Glenmont Avenue and High Street in January left the area covered in large sheets of ice, and a second break nearby had no repair timetable at the time, according to a separate ABC 6 report on the neighborhood's icy chaos. In German Village, a break near the Hey Hey Bar and Grill trapped multiple cars in ice more than a foot tall, the outlet also reported. For now, the West North Broadway leak remains unresolved, with residents watching the water keep running as colder weather sets in.
