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No, not full blown remediation. But cleaned up and sanitized, yes. Those pics show a real nasty mess. I'd be pretty roasted over it, personally. It can't just be left to dry out in the sun. I highly doubt the housing and health authorities ( who I would have called yesterday) would let that fly. The landlord is in the hotseat here if he has any clue of the situation and even if he doesn't know. It's his responsibility to have due diligence with his units. This is a big problem that's effecting adjacent properties.
Sewage on streets after a hurricane is a bit different. Streets are asphalt and concrete and can be hosed down. Messes washed back into manholes after the system recovers. Flow onto residential property that does have soil isn't the same when there is a volume like this situation being added to daily. Clean up and remediation are not the same thing. Personally, I'd be kicking and fussing all over this issue to every agency that has jurisdiction and will make it stop. No way I'd put up with this.
Not only "flow" but according to the OP standing water/sewage over a long period which has obviously seeped fairly deep into the soil. Wouldn't surprise me if they have to dig out a foot or more...
OP, while you may be on the fringes of the area served by your "local news", most stations have an Investigative Reporter who frequently goes looking for stories like yours. In any event, what would it cost you? A phone call to the I.R.? A few minutes conversation? Sending the pics to him/her?
After all the refusals from the city/county, (and be sure to get the names - NAMES - first and last, of everyone you speak to and in which department they work). Document everything, every conversation, and when you run out of departments, then contact the news station with all your notes. And when you do, DON'T bring up the 9 kids, their shooting history, the male visitors or anything else about the family. Don't malign the landlord, even if he is a lowlife; you don't want to get yourself sued.
Your only issue should be the pool of sewage and the failure of all the departments who did not help you or offer to tell you what department had responsibility. Let the I.R. take it from there. Good Luck.
I agree! I would also show up to a town hall meeting. If it's a broken serer pipe it IS the towns responsibility! You should also be able to pull county tax records which would have the name of the owner with a forwarding mailing address. Send him a certified letter stating that if it is not fixed you will have the county involved.
I would then also move. I wouldn't want to live near a slum rental. Obviously the owner doesn't care about it and is probably living out of state! Plus, doesn't seem like the town really cares either!
Not only "flow" but according to the OP standing water/sewage over a long period which has obviously seeped fairly deep into the soil. Wouldn't surprise me if they have to dig out a foot or more...
Oh certainly. Better than a foot wouldn't surprise me a bit. Raw sewage is a pretty serious bio hazard with the pathogen risk being 100%. I've never dealt with a mess of this scale, but I have had some pretty bad ones. The worst being under a house. The building inspector for the county wanted 12 inches of the effected area removed and the area sanitized. It was a nasty, and quite expensive project and it wasn't even the entire underneath. I spread a layer of cat liter and Tide with bleach into the dug out area and finished the grade with uncompacted road mix. That made the inspector happy.
I can't even imagine what the building and health agencies might want with this mess. But were I the one cleaning it up I guarantee it wouldn't be cheap. The property owner of the rental unit in question here, well, all I can say is for his sake I hope he has deep pockets. Not that I care about a slumlords financial difficulties. As a contractor with authoritative agencies on my side, I dealt with slumlords like a coyote deals with a fat helpless rodent. The only ones who ever saw the slumlord as a victim was themselves. The more they whined about expenses, the higher they went. Ching, ching ching. These fleabags have money. Usually a lot of it, but cry poor mouth as their tenants live in conditions we wouldn't see fit for even the lowest of animal life. The tenants can be less savory than the owners in that regard as well, to be fair.
I foresee this situation becoming pretty interesting. I'm quite glad to not be in the middle of it.
Why did you buy the house you live in? Was it clear at the time, that it was a wreck next door? However, I agree with an earlier poster who recommended calling the Health Dept.
Last edited by evening sun; 03-06-2017 at 10:23 AM..
Well, this is turning into a comedy, the sad kind. So far we have spoken with the State public health and been told it's "not their problem" and they have "no authority". Spoken with the County public/environmental health (the guy called in my by father-in-law) who spouted off the same "not my problem, not my jurisdiction". The city utilities have yet again said "not our problem". The one person who Seems to have any control over this.... doesn't work on Mondays (or doesn't work in my town maybe ~ I badgered a city office worker into giving me his cell phone), and won't answer his phone. Just love paying taxes for This...
To make this worse, the property owner called and said "someone's there right now", er.. no, I'm looking at the property and the only vehicles there are the renters. I asked who was doing the work, "Jerry".... apparently this person goes by just one name like Madonna and Bono. Okay, what's their phone number... "I donno". When badgered more, he then said "I'm in a meeting, I'll have to call you back"... *many curses* this retard called ME. So, we have someone unlicensed to do a job, who can't get a permit because THAT guy doesn't work Mondays (and wouldn't anyway because that costs money), and an expectation that the swamp of poo is just perfectly acceptable to have. I wish I could be shocked that the renters think this is acceptable, but it's no surprise at all.
I have zero faith in "news", less than zero actually. No one cares about what's happening in a podunk little dead town an hour or more away from the "news" stations. But I'll give them a call. What's a few more minutes wasted on the phone to no avail....
Have you tried calling your local Fire Dept? Seems to me they could point you in the right direction on who to call. Heck, they may even come out for a look see themselves.
This is the offending yard and sewage pool. If this isn't "dumping", willfully using a broken system in such volume that this occurs, I'm not sure what else to call it....
This is the our other neighbors yard (these 2 are on the end of the block, my property boarders them both):
How would YOU like to be living next to this? No, think about it. You open the door and are greeted with the stench of a pit-toilet. Walking into either the front or back yard, your shoes "squish" through the fully saturated ground. There's most likely fecal matter stuck to your shoes now, and your kids shoes ~ hope they don't trip and fall! Opps, the dog is rolling around in it and then run over and jump on you/rub against your legs. And the smell... my God the smell, and it's still cold outside. Just wait a week till the temps start to approach and breach 80 degree. Nevermind the rain that's expected and bound to flush even more of this fecal mater through 2 other yards and into the street.
Just think about this, really get a good visual. Now, imagine that the town/city says "Not our problem". The states says "we have no authority". The home owner says, well nothing because they never return a call.
Oh yeah, there's a church and frequently used playground directly opposite from where this is draining into the street. How would you feel about dropping your kids off to play with this in the street?
Am I wrong to be irate over this situation? If yes, then you're willing to have the same happen to you without complaint?
I'd be livid in that situation, and even more piZZed at the county's apparent indifference to what's obviously a health hazard to everyone living in that neighborhood.
It may be that your FIL can help you make connection with the county or state agency that will take action to correct this issue, but considering the health hazard, perhaps a call to your county or state Health Department might get the ball rolling. Seems to me the owner of the house, whoever this may be, is ultimately responsible for cleaning up this mess, and the owner should be listed in the public property records in your county.
I'd be on the horn to the Health Department in your shoes. This is terrible!
The shape of bureaucracy is different for every state, and often varies slightly even in every town/city within that state. If the state and county are telling you this is outside of their jurisdiction, then it's up to the city/town's health department to deal with. If that person is off today, I'd be calling your councilman (or even mayor, if you don't have a councilman) to ask how they are going to help you get this issue resolved. If the mayor's answer is something like "well, that guy is off today," you should make it clear that that isn't an acceptable solution, and there should be some kind of contingency plan in place.
I would add, though, you're coming off as very angry in this thread. AND UNDERSTANDABLY SO; the slumlord deserves all the badgering you can dish out. But, if you're interacting with the health department workers in the same way, you're less likely to get very far. This is just a job for them, and no one likes to be barked at over the phone. Also, if the health dept. guy is off today, it might be because, in this age of reducing the size of government, funding for his department was cut, and he has to do 5 days' work in only 4.
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