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Most cities would deal with it by condemning the house and shutting off the water, giving the occupants 24 hours to vacate or face arrest.
The OP lives in Georgia. I don't know if the horror stories you hear about sanitary conditions in the South are true or not. Maybe this is normal.
No it is NOT normal, regardless of where it is located.
We're in Florida, reported a significant artesian well leak from a broken well head on our next door neighbor's ( very part time snowbird) well, after he blew off repeated calls and letters with pictures to him showing the damage and the flooding in both our yards. He had blown off my husband, his yard maintenance guy and another neighbor, told me I didn't know what I was talking about and there was nothing wrong with his well head.
We called the SW FL Water Management District ( they regulate private wells here), they sent an inspector out the same day. The next day the owner called us, spoke to my husband in the most ingratiating manner I ever overheard, thanked him profusely for sending the pics and information about his well and informed him that someone was coming out to fix the well the next day, and they did, too. No more leaking.
And this didn't involve sewage, either, just water. As someone mentioned, perhaps the SWFMD's quick attention to the matter had something to do with the proximity of the properties to the waterway several hundred feet from the well, but they were quick about it.
And I suspect our neighbor's sudden realization that he had to do somethiing ASAP with his leaking well probably had more to do with the substantial fines he was facing if he continued to let it go. Looking at the related state statutes I think there were three laws he was violating, at a tune of several hundred dollars per day for noncompliance. Cheaper to get the well fixed.
But no, in my experience (after 41 years in Florida) we here in the south do not all live in swamplands infused with sewage.
Location: Finally the house is done and we are in Port St. Lucie!
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In the area I live in, in Florida, they are working on doing away with septic tanks. If one has to have their septic pumped or fixed, they have to instead hook up to city sewage. All properties that have city hookup have a grinder (?) attached that has an alarm on it. If there is a problem, alarm will sound. This is to prevent overflow during flooding.
I'm not sure how it all works but our new build has it. The lot was listed as septic, which I did not want, so before deciding on purchase I called the city offices to find out if we were city or septic. That's when I found out the plans for doing away with septic in this area.
It's a way to control new development and density...
One area I'm in the residents have petitioned for public sewer and it is always turned down... the density is 5 acre minimum with satisfactory perk test to install new septic... even if your neighbor is on a quarter acre... across the road the sewer went in at a average cost of 25k and shortly after many mini subdivisions followed.
No it is NOT normal, regardless of where it is located.
But no, in my experience (after 41 years in Florida) we here in the south do not all live in swamplands infused with sewage.
Typical Yankee comment: yep, all of us Southerners run around barefoot and have outhouses. Yep, lots of outhouses in places like Buckhead Atlanta or River Oaks Houston.
In the area I live in, in Florida, they are working on doing away with septic tanks. If one has to have their septic pumped or fixed, they have to instead hook up to city sewage. All properties that have city hookup have a grinder (?) attached that has an alarm on it. If there is a problem, alarm will sound. This is to prevent overflow during flooding.
I'm not sure how it all works but our new build has it. The lot was listed as septic, which I did not want, so before deciding on purchase I called the city offices to find out if we were city or septic. That's when I found out the plans for doing away with septic in this area.
FWIW it's a high level alarm which is basically a float hooked to a switch to warn of impending overflow. Many county areas, once annexed into a city end up having the "end septic, connect to sewer lines" rules put in place.
Sad part is it ends up costing the homeowner tens of thousands of dollars to do so. We were about to run into that in one of our previous homes, sold it before it went into effect as the net cost to us was going to be about $25k all said and done and would include a 30 year special bond (paid by each homeowner in the neighborhood) to add in the main sewer line down the street. The city even tried to nail each homeowner with sewer hookup fees all while forcing us to do it.
Thankfully that hookup fee got nixed after a few very heated city council meetings.
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