Thousands of litres of water was lost from a Hunter Water main on Christmas Eve after a valve blew on a high-pressure pipe that residents say has been plagued with leaks "for years".
The leak was from a 200-millimetre wide pipe that runs from a pumping station at Glen Oak to Martins Creek Reservoir, which supplies water to Martins Creek, Paterson and Vacy.
Hunter Water says it responded to a report of the leak on the morning of Tuesday, December 24.
"Hunter Water received a call from a customer at around 11.30am ... to report a leak from the water main which runs underneath their property at Glen Oak," a spokesperson said.
"The leak was on a 200mm pipeline that runs off the [Chichester Trunk Gravity Main]. A Hunter Water network technician arrived onsite at 1pm, and identified and isolated the leak by 1.30pm.
"Repairs were carried out and water supply to the reservoir restored at 5.45pm."
The Hunter Water spokesperson refused to say how much water had been lost, but Glen Oak resident Greg Venticinque, who lives on an adjoining property, said the "dry" Tumbledown creek quickly filled with water.
With water passing over his causeway, Mr Venticinque - an engineer - monitored the creek and estimated more than 1000 litres per minute was flowing by.
He said water ran for hours after the stated isolation.
"The creek was a dry bed," he said. "So much water went into it. With that amount of water, it must have been more than that."
Mr Venticinque said the underground pipe, understood to be decades old, was "continuously leaking".
"It's been ongoing for years," he said.
"The line's been leaking and breaking. It's multiple places, but there's one spot that leaks the most.
"It's a bit like pressure surges, everyone out here keeps getting big water bills because they won't accept it's a problem.
"They say, 'you must have used the water'."
Mr Venticinque said Hunter Water was asking people to save 40 litres per day under water restrictions, but the leak was "wasting more than 25 times that per minute".
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