Toilet explodes, floods house in sewage www.privateofficer.com
Posted by privateofficernews on April 8, 2008
Toilet explodes, covers house in sewage www.privateofficer.com
NASHVILLE, Tenn. April 8 2008
By: Rick McCann
Ntl. Assoc. Private Officers
You’ve had a rough day at work and you’re exhausted. You just want to go home and relax, put your feet up and watch a little TV and get a bite to eat. You finally work your way through the snarled rush hour traffic and make it back to your castle and swing open the door to peace and relaxation.
But for Nashville resident, Sandra Johnson, what she saw and worse yet, what she smelled the instant her front door opened was the most disgusting, offensive and fowl smell and sight that anyone can imagine.
You see, in the metro area a dirty problem that lies a few feet beneath Nashville has surfaced more than a dozen times in the past year — in residents’ houses.
you see, beneath the the metro city lies 3000 miles of sewer line and when something goes wrong under there and there’s a backup, that raw sewage has only one place to go…..exploding up through your toilet and into your house flooding it with everything that has been flushed through the system by thousands of other customers.
Sandra Johnson has lived in her home for more than six years, but when she walked in the front door on Feb. 17., she found a disgusting disaster.
“The lid had been blown off the toilet, and you could see it around the lid cover,” she said.
She said the sewer’s contents had drenched four rooms in her home with raw sewage.
“When you got a closer look in the bathroom, it was rocks, and, you know, sewage like it just pulled deep out of the ground into the house,” she said.
Johnson said her couch, clothes and TV all had to be thrown away and that environmentalists told her to move out of the house.
The house was no longer habitable and she was told by inspectors to move out and she did thinking that the Metro government would take care of the mess and assume financial responsibility for the damages
but on March 19, Metro’s legal department denied her claim.
“I didn’t create this, you know. I shouldn’t have to clean it up,” she said.
In the past year, 15 homeowners have gone to Metro with similar complaints; in four of those, Metro paid for the damage.
“It is something, as I said, our crews work very diligently to prevent from happening. Obviously, trees, trees will try to search for water, they can get their roots into sewer mains,” said Metro Water spokeswoman Sonia Harvat.
The city did find a blockage in the sewer line to Johnson’s house, but there was also a bigger problem that occurred about 40 years before Johnson moved in.
“There was also some issues with the property owner’s service line. It was installed incorrectly,” said Harvat.
Officials with Metro Water said service lines from homes are supposed to be installed on a declining angle, but the one at Johnson’s house is level. When the blockage occurred in the main sewer system, it caused her sewage and other people’s sewage to flow up through her toilet and into her house.
“When you do have a backup, that sewage is going to take the path of least resistance. So, if it can’t go where it’s needing to go, and it backs up, it’s going to take whatever path it can to gain relief,” said Harvat.
The restoration of Johnson’s house has already begun, and the project is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $50,000. Though her claim has been denied, she said she hopes Metro will reconsider.
“I want them to assume responsibility to really look into how this happened. … This is not anything normal that happens, that sewage backs up into somebody’s house of this volume,” Johnson said.
“There are some issues on both ends they are working through to determine the actual cause,” Harvat said.
It would have been impossible for Johnson to know her line was installed flat because it happened about 32 years before she bought the house.
Metro Water officials said one way homeowners can protect themselves is to make sure the home has a sewer backflow in place. That way, even if there is a problem in the main, it won’t come flowing into a house.
City officials met again last week to discuss whether to pay Johnson any damages for the sewer blockage that led to the mess but as of now Johnson hasn’t received a cent from the City of Nashville.
But for Nashville resident, Sandra Johnson, what she saw and worse yet, what she smelled the instant her front door opened was the most disgusting, offensive and fowl smell and sight that anyone can imagine.
You see, in the metro area a dirty problem that lies a few feet beneath Nashville has surfaced more than a dozen times in the past year — in residents’ houses.
you see, beneath the the metro city lies 3000 miles of sewer line and when something goes wrong under there and there’s a backup, that raw sewage has only one place to go…..exploding up through your toilet and into your house flooding it with everything that has been flushed through the system by thousands of other customers.
Sandra Johnson has lived in her home for more than six years, but when she walked in the front door on Feb. 17., she found a disgusting disaster.
“The lid had been blown off the toilet, and you could see it around the lid cover,” she said.
She said the sewer’s contents had drenched four rooms in her home with raw sewage.
“When you got a closer look in the bathroom, it was rocks, and, you know, sewage like it just pulled deep out of the ground into the house,” she said.
Johnson said her couch, clothes and TV all had to be thrown away and that environmentalists told her to move out of the house.
The house was no longer habitable and she was told by inspectors to move out and she did thinking that the Metro government would take care of the mess and assume financial responsibility for the damages
but on March 19, Metro’s legal department denied her claim.
“I didn’t create this, you know. I shouldn’t have to clean it up,” she said.
In the past year, 15 homeowners have gone to Metro with similar complaints; in four of those, Metro paid for the damage.
“It is something, as I said, our crews work very diligently to prevent from happening. Obviously, trees, trees will try to search for water, they can get their roots into sewer mains,” said Metro Water spokeswoman Sonia Harvat.
The city did find a blockage in the sewer line to Johnson’s house, but there was also a bigger problem that occurred about 40 years before Johnson moved in.
“There was also some issues with the property owner’s service line. It was installed incorrectly,” said Harvat.
Officials with Metro Water said service lines from homes are supposed to be installed on a declining angle, but the one at Johnson’s house is level. When the blockage occurred in the main sewer system, it caused her sewage and other people’s sewage to flow up through her toilet and into her house.
“When you do have a backup, that sewage is going to take the path of least resistance. So, if it can’t go where it’s needing to go, and it backs up, it’s going to take whatever path it can to gain relief,” said Harvat.
The restoration of Johnson’s house has already begun, and the project is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $50,000. Though her claim has been denied, she said she hopes Metro will reconsider.
“I want them to assume responsibility to really look into how this happened. … This is not anything normal that happens, that sewage backs up into somebody’s house of this volume,” Johnson said.
“There are some issues on both ends they are working through to determine the actual cause,” Harvat said.
It would have been impossible for Johnson to know her line was installed flat because it happened about 32 years before she bought the house.
Metro Water officials said one way homeowners can protect themselves is to make sure the home has a sewer backflow in place. That way, even if there is a problem in the main, it won’t come flowing into a house.
City officials met again last week to discuss whether to pay Johnson any damages for the sewer blockage that led to the mess but as of now Johnson hasn’t received a cent from the City of Nashville.
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