Valley resident 
tells city council about raw sewage 
in her basement

SPRING VALLEY — City officials were on the hot seat Monday night over a sewer backup an angry resident says dumped over three feet of raw sewage into her basement last week. 

The issue came up during a city report Monday that a manhole lid near Ladd Road had washed loose during heavy rains last week, causing sewer backups and basement flooding in a house on Ladd Road. 

Chris Balzarine, who lives at 605 Ladd Road, told the city council Monday that regardless of the backup’s cause, sewage, rife with human waste and male and female health products, flooded her basement Thursday night, knocking out her hot water heater and her furnace. 

Balzarine’s daughter, Vanessa Balzarine told the BCR that they heard “a noise” in their basement Thursday night. She claims she went down the basement stairs to investigate, stepped in something wet, and then saw a geyser of raw sewage shooting out of a toilet in the basement.

For the leakage, Chris Balzarine blames a 12-inch sewer pipe she says is coupled with an 8-inch sewer pipe under Ladd Road near her property. She told the counci the pipe coupling has caused occasional storm water seeps in her basement, and that the city knows all about the issue, but hasn’t fixed it.

“The problem’s been there for a long time,” Balzarine said, noticeably upset about the situation. “You put Wal-Mart in and you did everything for everybody else, but couldn’t fix that stretch of that piping.”

Last week was the first time her basement’s had sewage infiltration, Balzarine said. City water superintendent John Schultz told the BCR Monday he couldn’t comment on possible causes of sewer leakage in Balzarine’s basement.

Vanessa Balzarine said she’s one of six people who were exposed to the sewer leak during cleanup. She said she’s six months pregnant, and she’s a nurse. She’s worried about her and her family’s health. 

“What’s going to happen if the six people who were exposed to waste who tried to clean up our house come down with hepatitis? That’s a lifelong condition,” she said.

“You are aware that we’re working on this problem, trying to raise money to get it done, right?” Mayor Cliff Banks responded, explaining that the line affecting Balzarine’s basement is part of the $800,000 Ladd Road sewer replacement project the city has requested federal stimulus funds for.