Metro Water flushes raw sewage into Percy Priest home
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Whose fault is it? That’s a question being asked by a Nashville couple whose basement flooded with raw sewage.
It all begins Saturday September 12th.
That’s the day the commode in the Percy Priest Lake residence of Arnold and Tina Bailey begins bubbling over with raw sewage.
The Bailey’s show me pictures of a basement mud room that is blackened by the disgusting mess.
On the day Messed Up arrives, Mrs. Bailey is packing her trunk with suit cases. The woman tells me she has respiratory problems and the on going environmental disaster is forcing her to stay with relatives in Kentucky.
Her husband, Arnold stays behind to manage the hideous mess.
The retired military pilot says dealing with metro has been messed up, so much so, he wrote this letter to Mayor Karl Dean.
My name is Arnold Bailey. I live Clearlake Dr west. On Saturday public works was cleaning sewer lines next to my house at the sewage pumping station and back flushed raw sewer water into my home. They started cleanup late Saturday night, ran blowers and drying equipment, and tore out walls and contaminated items and were going to remove contaminated tiles and clean the air ducts. This afternoon they pulled out the workers and said they were still investigating who was at fault for this problem. This was and is a very serious health problem. They told me to contact my insurance company for repairs. It was a metro pump truck that was blowing the lines at their pumping station. My wife has acute asthma and could not be in the house so we slept in our Motor home. The motor home went for maintenance today so she left to stay with relatives until work is complete. I am staying in the house but am not comfortable with it. Metro caused this problem and they need to take care of it. This pumping station has been a problem for the 25 years that I have lived here with spills, overflows, smells, noise and chemical sanitation blocks hanging next to my pool and patio. I am requesting your help in solving this problem as I have run into a solid wall and they are treating me poorly and seem to think that it is my problem not theirs.
When he gets nowhere with the city, Arnold Bailey calls That’s Messed Up.
I call his Councilwoman, Vivian Wilhoite who tells me she has all ready been investigating the matter. She tells me that Metro should be more responsive to her constituent’s needs.
“They are trying to tell me that this is an act of God. Don’t ever tell me that it is an act of God for him to put poop in a man’s house.”
Wilhoite tells me she tells water department officials to handle this matter now, because she doesn’t want to see it show up on her council desk later, with much heftier price tag.
“This better not end up on my desk. Approve his claim. Take care of this now. It’s only right. I’m not so sure Metro isn’t at fault. That goes along with running Metro Water. If Mr. Arnold was in his yard and did something to the line, that is one thing. But in this situation, he was in his house, and poop comes back up the line.”
The councilwoman indicates that Metro Water was pulling out its crews and limiting the city’s financial responsibility in the matter. She says she told them to reevaluate.
“I asked they open this back up. This makes no sense. It makes no sense. Look back at this and provide me a reason why he should not be compensated. I better not see this a year from now when it could have been resolved on the front end.”
I talk with Sonia Harvat who represents the Metro Water Department.
Harvat says the Bailey’s troubles begin when a sewage pipe is blocked in the neighborhood.
Harvat says the pipe is blocked with house hold materials including grease, which neighbors have been dumping down their drains over time.
According to Harvat, Metro crews pumped the line clean, and when they did, there was a sudden surge that forces its way through the pipe, that pressure rushed to the lowest point, which just happened to be the commode in Arnold Bailey’s home.
“Metro Water Services is paying for the initial clean up,” Harvat says. “Our priority is health and safety. Our system was not malfunctioning, our system was not broken. It was nothing inside our sewer system causing the back up it was grease! Metro will look to see if there was negligence on the part of metro water services. Did we break something that caused the over flow, but there was no negligence and that is what claims will look at it to see who pays for it.”
Bailey says the city did initially hire a company to clean up the filth. But after a few days, the city pulls the plug and the cleaning stops. Thanks to Messed Up and Councilwoman Wilhoite, the city has reconsidered its position.
An attorney for Metro Legal tells Messed Up, the city will pay for the clean up as long as it is deemed reasonable.
A water department official tells Messed Up “We don’t want to build the Taj Majal, but we will pay for the mess.”
Arnold and Tina Bailey say that’s the least the city can do for what they have been through.
Check out this link that educates citizens on the do’s and don’ts of flushing things into the system.
Karl Dean has no interest unless it involves one of the wealthy zip codes.
“…Harvat says. “…our system was not broken. It was nothing inside our sewer system causing the back up it was grease!”
Grease inside your sewer system, Mr. Harvat. Pay for the cleanup.
Do you know how grease gets into sewer lines? By people pouring cooking oil and other kitchen wastes down the sink. Stop putting grease into the sewer lines and there will be none there. Grease doesn’t just naturally accrue in sewer lines.
By the way Sonia Harvat is a woman.
Dear Andy,
It appears that the raw sewage problem was not only in the Percy Priest
area.
The same thing happened on Goldie Drive in Goodlettsville, Tn. The morning
of Sept. the 16th.
After Metro Water Works admitting it is their fault due to a leak in the
pipes , we cannot seem to get anyone to call us back. We have filled a
claim , but no response , no ones in , leave a message blah blah blah.
We had someone to come out and assess the damage , it will cost thousands
to replace sheet rock and other things due to raw sewage sitting in our
house. We cleaned what we could up , but now it is in the walls and a mold
hazard which needs to be fixed ASAP.
If you could please help us with this matter.
There are 2 small children in the house and we have all been sick sense.
We have tried to reach Rachel ,the lady dodging our case for a while now ,
no call back.They say she is out sick.
Well at least she gets to rest at home where is does not smell like raw
sewage in her house.
Thank you,
Jamie Thomas
If the city doesn’t want folks using garbage disposals why are they not outlawed? I don’t have one and won’t but they are pretty standard now in homes.
I hope the homeowner invests in a sewage back-flow valve.
http://www.petersonvalve.com/
I have no faith in Metro Water, in Feb of 2007 I had the something similar happen. Here is the link, but metro never assumed any responbility but very greatful my insurance company stepped in and repaired the house. I still believe to this day this was on Metro’s end. Here is the link to my story.
http://www.wsmv.com/news/15817430/detail.html
Willy,
It doesn’t matter where the grease started out; the clog in the sewer is what caused the backup. Metro Water’s sewer, Metro Water’s clog, Metro Water’s fault.
CSR,
It most certainly does matter where the grease started out! Have you ever heard of cause and effect? Even if Metro Water eats every expense related to grease in sewer lines, as long as grease keeps being poured into them, the same problem will continue to occur and the same “party of personal responsibility” advocates will continue to whine about it. I agree that the problem should be resolved and the damage rectified.
It’s absurd to keep putting bandaids on the problem, or effect, while ignoring the basic cause.
By the way, if you’ll read the article more carefully, you’ll see that it is Metro Claims that is holding up the reimbursement, not Metro Water.
Willy - or is it Sonia? I’m betting the latter, that you’re the Metro Water person catching the heat and trying to rationalize your own bad choice.
If Metro Water maintained their sewer system correctly they would never have a large enough “grease clog” to matter. This is THEIR problem - oops, it’s YOUR problem, Sonia/Willy.
On the day that the home was flooded Metro used a large pumper truck and tried to unblock the line and blew raw sewage into the house. They did not unblock the line and cause sewage to run up the sewer into the house. It would have to made a right turn and go up hill. It was under pressure and was forced into the house. If they had unblocked the line it would have went stright down the line into the pumping station fallowing the path of least resistence. As they stopped the pumping the flow to the house stopped. They return in three days and tried again. This time they had someone watch the cleanout to the house and when the sewage started to rise they shutdown the pump. This was done several times and they cleared the line and there was no flood in the home. It went to the pumping station.
CSR, or is it Larry Brenton, king of the Water Dept. bashers-I am not affiliated with the Water Dept., but I have friends who are.
Apparently you were so overwhelmed with my logic and reasoning that you took the usual route of trying to dodge the issue and opted instead to keep beating on the Water Dept. like a rented mule.
Let me go over this again. s-l-o-w-l-y, so you can assimilate it.
Contrary to what you and the relatively few, but vocal, proponents of the “WaterDept.=Bad” crowd, there are many positive things that are done by Metro Water. I would enumerate them here but it would do very little good since individuals of this ilk are disinclined to believe anything except what they wish to believe.
You obviously have very little, if any, knowledge about what it takes to maintain sewer lines. Why don’t you take the time to visit the Central Wastewater Treatment facility and get some firsthand information? Or are you afraid that might destroy your delusion about having cornered the market on correct thinking?
I stated clearly that I thought that the homeowner who suffered this dilemma be compensated by Metro. Did that statement get by you too? I agree that it is the Water Dept.’s problem.
It must really be wonderful to be you, standing on your mountaintop and passing judgment on who needs to shoulder responsibility. There are lots of hard-working people in Metro who have to take the heat every time something like this happens.
The number of employees throughout Metro has been drastically reduced over the past several years. I guess that’s just tough cookies too, huh? Metro employees have families, bills to pay and FEELINGS just like you do!!
On Sunday the 6th of sept. after being away for the weekend I came home and found my den flooded and and stinking of raw sewage. I started the clean up and called. metro came out on tue. and flushed the lines and said the whole street was blocked. I do not pour grease in my drain and I feel metro is not keeping the sewer lines clean. I have thousands in damage and cleanup cost. I filed a claim with metro ane the claims processor told me she was going to reccomend that metro pay the claim but she was not the final say so. on the 6th of Oct. I got the denial letter and was told in short TO BAD SO SAD DEAL WITH IT!! Metro sucks. we pay extra for sewar maintance and get the shaft!!!! I did not cause this problem and I intend to take legal action!!!!!!