Northeast Sewer Board Listens to Sewage Backup Complaints

Victims of a sewer backup last month were made a few promises Wendesday, but its still not clear if they'll be paid for damages to their homes.

About a dozen people came to a board meeting Wednesday of the Northeast Public Sewer District. Many of the people live on Winter Park Drive, near one of the district's pump stations.

The pump station failed June 18 and , according to a recent Patch story.

"I pay for a certain level of service and not the level I got on Father's Day weekend," homeowner Don Algren said. "This is unacceptable."

The problems began when the station lost power early in the morning. A back-up generator came online, but a lightning strike an hour later meant it couldn't produce electricity to run the station. Not long after that, the waste backed up into the homeowners's basements.

The district's insurance company ruled the incident an "Act of God," and the district hasn't reimbursed homeowners for the damage. According to those at the meeting, it is not the first time some of these homes haveexperienced back ups.

Ann Sanchez said its happened twice in the last six months, with three inches of sewage greeting her family on Christmas Day.

"There is something wrong with that pump station," Sanchez said as she handed photos of her ruined basement to the district's trustees.

Most of the night, the board simply listened and, when pressed, wouldn't make any promises of compensation. The board agreed to look closely at the cause of the incident.

Chairman LeRoy Luck offered another assurance.

"We're going to do everything humanly possible ... to make it work properly so that it'll never run back into your home again," he said, referencing the multiple times sewage has backed up into some houses.

Later in the meeting, district executive director Jeffrey Doss said $10,000 worth of improvements were done to the station in February. With that, he thinks the number of overflows in the area will drop sharply. Aside from last month's incident, there haven't been any since the improvements were done.

At least one board member said he hadn't even heard about the sewer backup problems or about the February improvements.

Jefferson County Council member Renee Reuter, R-2nd District, found that surprising. The board, to her, hasn't moved nearly fast enough to help the homeowners.

"This is a major reputational blow to this organization," she said.

The board plans to schedule a public work session to talk about the incident further.