SE Austin resident lives next to creek full of dumped furniture, says city won't clean it up

Furniture dumped in creek in SE Austin

A Southeast Austin resident is living by a creek that's full of dumped furniture. She says she's been calling the city for months to clean it up, but more stuff keeps piling up.

AUSTIN, Texas - A Southeast Austin resident is living by a creek that's full of dumped furniture. 

She says she's been calling the city for months to clean it up, but more stuff keeps piling up. 

Local perspective:

Esther Govea has lived on Teri Road for 30 years. She says in the past, if people threw stuff in the creek, and she called the city, crews would come clean it. However, lately, that hasn't happened.

She placed a service request with 311 in October for the dumped pile of furniture. 

"I pay taxes. That's the City of Austin job to do this, to come out and pick it up," she said.

She says she called again in November and January and was told the request was passed along to the Watershed Department. 

"It's just like, y'all tell me, 'mind your own business,'" she said.

The pile of furniture is still there, and she's tired of calling over and over. 

"I even cry because, you know, it's upsetting. This is my yard. This is like my yard, but I want my yard nice. I want the creek to be nice," she said. 

When FOX 7 Austin visited the site, there were mattresses, a couch, a pet carrier, and much more dumped in the creek. 

"I'm pretty sure that nobody would like to live and have a creek like this. I'm disabled, so there's only certain things I could do. If I was healthy, I would clean it myself," Govea said.

She says she hasn't seen who's dumping the furniture and is also worried about the flooding risk. 

Austin Watershed responds

FOX 7 Austin reached out to Austin Watershed. They provided the following statement:

"Austin Watershed Protection received two Customer Service Requests on the same day in October 2025 regarding the same issue. [One] was closed as a duplicate. A work order was created for the other request. During our investigation in October 2025, furniture was not present, but a work order was created to clear trees, limbs, and debris from the channel. Photos from that site visit are included. No callback was requested by the resident. The work order has not yet been completed, but it has been elevated to our highest priority level. The South Crew Superintendent expects to get a team there this week to address the furniture."

 311 says the service request was submitted correctly to Watershed.