Sewer problems continue
SPRING VALLEY — Three weeks after a sewer backup left a Ladd Road homeowner’s basement flooded with raw sewage, city crews and the residents affected by the backup are working on solutions to the problem.
Spring Valley city officials initially blamed the Oct. 22 backup on a manhole lid near Ladd Road which had apparently washed loose during heavy rains. But the city has since indicated the backup actually was caused by tree root infiltration along the Ladd Road sewer line, officials said this week.
Since the Oct. 22 backup, city crews have worked along Ladd Road and Second Street, cutting back tree roots that were blocking the sewer, water superintendent John Schultz reported to the city council this week.
Schultz said crews also cut down two problem trees along Ladd Road, and televised Ladd Road’s sewer line along Ladd Road and Second Street, to search for root blockages or other problems.
“You can tell by the pictures that the sewer’s in bad shape,” Schultz said.
That’s no surprise. This year, the city tabbed the Ladd Road sewer line for replacement, an $800,000 item in a larger sewer work plan the city is currently seeking federal stimulus funds for.
For Jim Balzarine, the homeowner at 605 Ladd Road whose basement was flooded in the Oct. 22 backup, sewer work hasn’t come soon enough. At an Oct. 26 city council meeting, members of the Balzarine family had given city officials an earful about sewage they said had shot like a geyser from pipes in their basement, drowning it in more than 3 feet of human waste.
This week, Balzarine told the BCR the sewage backup damaged the family’s furnace. And it destroyed two freezers, a hot water heater and a washer and dryer — all items the family has since replaced, he said.
Balzarine said the backup also ruined a number of collectibles, along with thousands of fishing lures and some HVAC tools.
Balzarine said the city plans to send an insurance representative to their house to take stock of property damages, and to examine expense receipts and costs for cleanup of their basement.
“It’s too bad they’ve waited three weeks to send someone out here,” Balzarine’s daughter, Vanessa Balzarine told the BCR this week.
She said insurance consultants would have seen puddles of sludge and raw sewage in their basement that took more than two weeks to dry using fans.
Jim Balzarine said he and his family did the cleanup themselves to save on costs, since the family’s own insurance provider wouldn’t cover damages caused by the backup.
“We’re leaving the windows open; I just hope nobody comes down with anything,” he said, referring to health worries the family has following their exposure to raw sewage in their basement.
This week, Mayor Cliff Banks asked Schultz to notify Ladd Road residents who have tree root problems next to their houses. Banks said that would allow homeowners to be proactive “instead of calling us some day and saying their basement backed up.”
Balzarine said as of Thursday, the city had issued him no notice of root problems in his yard.
Regardless, Balzarine argues he’s “pretty sure” tree roots “wouldn’t cause sewage to forcefully shoot out of every single drain in my basement.” And while Balzarine said he appreciates recent work city crews have done along Ladd Road, he called the root cutting work a “band-aid” for a bigger problem.
Balzarine said until the city gets money for work on the Ladd Road sewer, he’s worried about the threat of more sewer problems. Balzarine said he’ll probably have a check-valve installed at his home to minimize the risk of sewage or groundwater flooding his basement.
“It’s all I can do if I want to stay in my house,” he said.
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