For thousands of low-income Houstonians, brown water gushing into their backyards and seeping up through their bathroom sinks has become an unavoidable reality.

From April 2021 to June 2023, the period for which data is available, the city has recorded over 4,400 private sewer leaks. Around two-thirds of these incidents occurred in census tracts – areas typically with a few thousand people – where the median household income is below Houston’s median of $60,440. Eighty-six percent of the leaks happened in areas where Black and Hispanic residents together make up the majority of the population.