The “blue hole” in southern Dallas has dried up following the completion of long-overdue water line repairs.

The City of Dallas recently completed the repairs on a broken pipe in the Great Trinity Forest. The pipe had been leaking fresh drinking water into the surrounding area.

Alexander Neal, a Texas Rivers Protection Association board member, posted a video of himself on July 31 kayaking through what he called Dallas’ “blue hole.” Neal alleged that the surrounding clear-water swamp was the result of “tens of millions of gallons” of treated water that had been leaking from a City pipe for “at least five years,” as previously reported by The Dallas Express.

Dallas Water Utilities completed repairs on the 30-inch pipe over the Labor Day weekend. In August, water utility officials claimed that about 3.6 million gallons of drinking water had leaked into the surrounding area. However, they admitted they were unsure exactly when the leak began.

Ben Sandifer, a conservationist and advocate for the Great Trinity Forest and White Rock Lake, told Fox 4 KDFW that he had been studying the body of water created by the leak for years, disputing the City’s estimate of how much water escaped the pipe.

“It seems very low. It seems minuscule to the amount of water that’s actually been discharged off this site,” Sandifer alleged.

Sandifer said he filed a formal complaint to the City of Dallas seven months before the City began its investigation into the leak in October 2022.

“I’ve seen it on Google Maps, aerial maps for at least the last decade in this one spot,” claimed Sandifer, according to Fox 4.

Sandifer said the leak left a lasting impact on the environment, having “heavily damaged” the area. He also noted that the leak has impacted local water utility users.

“Us, the ratepayers, are paying for this,” Sandifer said, per Fox 4.

He alleged that the City of Dallas has not been transparent about the matter.

“A lot of citizens are making those conscious decisions for water conservation,” said Sandfier, according to Fox 4. “But on the city level, sometimes when you see something like this, you wonder if they’re practicing what they preach.”

The Dallas Express reached out to Dallas Water Utilities for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

As previously reported by The Dallas Express, a poll found that an overwhelming majority of respondents felt the City of Dallas needs to be more transparent.

Jake Colglazier, who leads Keep Dallas Safe, previously told The Dallas Express that the poll “clearly shows that the agenda of the mayor, city council and district attorney is at odds with what Dallas residents want for their city.”

Colglazier further stated, “These officials and their allies in the media work very hard to keep Dallas residents in the dark.”