Jackson officials announced Monday the city was beginning to fix leaks at the local zoo that have been going on “for years.”

Workers from the firm Wicker Construction are repairing one of the “major” leaks on Monday, a press release from the city said.

“For years, efforts to identify and repair these leaks have not been dealt with in a swift and aggressive manner, for whatever reason,” said Steve Hutton, Jackson’s recreation manager. “That stops now.”

Hutton referenced “million-dollar plus” water bills incurred by leaks at the zoo over the years. During a recent status conference with U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate, third-party utility JXN Water said the city owed over $6 million in unpaid water bills, and that the largest amount came from the Jackson Zoo.

It’s unclear how many leaks are at the zoo, which is located in west Jackson. In 2015, the release said, the city noticed that the moat surrounding the zoo’s chimpanzees, a buffer between visitors and the animals, was losing water. The city then used a fire hydrant to keep the moat full, WLBT reported.

Yet, after officials relocated the chimpanzees and turned the hydrant off, the moat remained full, revealing a “major water line leak” that ran all day, every day. The leak existed “for years,” the release said.

“It seems like when we identify one problem, it results in another problem being discovered,” said Peter Teeuwissen, Jackson’s chief administrative officer. “The voters made it clear they were hiring us to fix difficult problems. We absolutely will get these problems fixed.”

Wicker Construction will focus on fixing the major leak Monday, and then will address leaks within the moat and smaller ones around the zoo, the city said.