Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
Making a stink: When county sewer work
backfires, it can get ugly
9/12/2003 Miami Herald
An ominous bubbling from the toilet was so loud that it woke up Lisa Burt,
but it didn't prepare her for what happened next.
Her commode suddenly erupted into a smelly fountain, spewing a disgusting gray
geyser of water -- and other things -- two feet into the air.
''The sewage wet everything, and it stunk to high heaven,'' said Burt, who lives
in Palm Springs North.
It was a stomach-churning mystery.
But a rumbling noise outside quickly revealed the culprit: a Miami-Dade County
crew cleaning a sewer line.
''I threw on a gown, ran outside and yelled at workers until they stopped,''
Burt said.
Burt's toilet woes are not unique. Across the county, Water and Sewer Department
workers scouring sewer lines often inflict malodorous surprises on unsuspecting
residents. ''We don't know how many,'' John Chorlog, an assistant director for
the department, said when asked for a precise count.
''It's like Russian roulette,'' said Bob Miller, a department adjuster sent to
check the sewage spill in Burt's home. ``We don't know when, where or why. It
just happens.''
The problem occurs when crews use high-water-pressure hoses to clean pipes of
rocks and other junk that could impede cameras used to check for cracks.
The powerful water jet will clear any clogs, including those in pipes connecting
homes to main sewer lines. That, in turn, propels toilet waste sitting behind
the blockage back up from where it came.
Sewage can settle in pipes running from homes to main sewer lines, said Mike
Selby, a service department manager at Vac-Con, a Jacksonville company that
manufactures the trucks the county uses to clean pipes.
''The sewage drains by gravity, because the pipes are at an angle,'' Selby said.
``If sewage is settled, when the water hose comes by it, it'll force the stuff
back up in the house.''
Added Chorlog: ``We shoot water strong enough to push the debris down the line.
But we're not perfect.''
Water and Sewer Department officials say it appears there simply is no solution
to the problem.
''Checking for cracks in sewerage pipes is not just a Miami-Dade issue, it's a
national issue,'' said Adam Krantz, a managing director of government and public
affairs for the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies in Washington,
D.C. ``Sewer backups do occur, whether or not there is a link I do not know.''
The county cleans and checks pipes for cracks on a rotating basis throughout
Miami-Dade every day as part of a federal mandate stemming from a 1993 violation
of the Clean Water Act.
Considering the enormous task of inspecting dozens of miles of pipes, the sewage
regurgitation problem is relatively small, according to some officials. Last
year, for example, the Water and Sewer Department paid $7,500 in claims related
to line cleaning, according to department spokeswoman Adriana Lamar.
MANY AREN'T HOME
But in many cases, line backups occur when people are working and have no idea
that the mess they come home to was caused by the county.
That was not the case for Adriana and Luis Torres. They awoke one Sunday morning
earlier this year to the sound of dirty water gushing from the toilet in their
North Miami-Dade home.
Their first instinct, understandably, was to call a plumber.
`IT WAS DISGUSTING'
''It was disgusting. We thought it was a problem with our pipes,'' Adriana
Torres said. ``But when our plumber came to check the sewer lines, he discovered
there was something stuck in manholes the county crews had been working on three
days before.''
That's when Torres called the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department and demanded
someone come out to her home.
Aside from the inconvenience, it was an expensive mess.
When it was over, Torres had a $560 plumbing bill, and it took a lot of
persistence to get the county to reimburse her.
`A LOT OF MONEY'
''We finally got the check after six months and 101 phone calls,'' she said.
``It was a lot of money, and I wasn't going to let it die.''
Toilet backups can be more than just foul-smelling. They can also pose a health
hazard, according to Samir Elmir, an environmental administrator for the Florida
Department of Health.
''Parasites in human waste are very dangerous. It can give you intestinal
illnesses and skin disease if you have a cut,'' Elmir said. ``The sewage also
carries diseases and viruses that could be very harmful to humans if exposed to
them.''
Even if line backups are not preventable, Burt said the county should at least
alert residents when cleaning crews are in their neighborhoods. That's something
the Water and Sewer Department does not do, because it says it would be
time-consuming and costly.
''They were nice to me after the fact -- but of course didn't tell me in
advance,'' said Burt, who filed a claim with the county to reimburse her $200
plumbing bill. ``And if you don't demand help and answers, they don't offer it.
The county needs to get the ball rolling so that this doesn't continue to
happen, or it needs to at least start warning people.