Sewage Spews Into New York Homes

A couple is pursuing legal action after sewage gushed out of the toilet and left an ankle-deep mess in their New York home.

The couple from New Rochelle, NY, “is raising a legal stink about hundreds of gallons of raw sewage they say was pumped into their Wilmot Road house by the city last year,” The Journal News reported.

“In a lawsuit filed May 31, Alina and Alberto Casadevall say the first floor, garage, patio and yard of their home were flooded with as much as 8 inches of sewage on June 15, caused by sewer work being done by the city's Department of Public Works,” the report said.

The Casadevalls say they alerted the department about strange sounds coming from their plumbing system while sewer work was occurring nearby.

The couple's lawyer Maria Castagnozzi weighed in, per the report.

“What the Casadevalls went through was terrible,” Castagnozzi said. “But what makes it worse is that it was totally preventable if the [department] workers would have been more sensitive to Mrs. Casadevall’s complaints.”

Insurance covered the cleanup costs. A spokeswoman for the city said it does not comment on pending litigation, the report said.

Franco Gallardo, president of the New Rochelle-based U.S. Sewer and Drain Co., said being around raw sewage carries health risks.

"You have germs, you can get hepatitis; I'm not a doctor, but it's human waste, so you name it and there's a risk," Gallardo said, per the report. "Put it this way, if I go in the sewer pit, it would take less than a couple hours for me to pass out because I'm breathing in those gases. That tells you how strong they are."

The U.S. EPA is clear on the health risks of raw sewage.

“Raw sewage contains disease-causing pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, worms, and protozoa. Diseases resulting from enteric pathogens range from stomach flu and upper respiratory infections to potentially life-threatening illnesses such as cholera, dysentery, Hepatitis B, and cryptosporidiosis,” the agency says.

Westchester County, where New Rochelle is located, has hefty sewage challenges on its plate. An environmental group is suing the county because it says a substantial amount of pollution “comes from Westchester County's cracked sanitary sewer pipes that are supposed to transport raw sewage to water treatment plants,” The Journal News reported.

Democratic Assembly member Steve Otis described the problem like this: “Municipalities have requirements to upgrade their stormwater and sewer systems but they can’t afford to do it.”

To read more about sewer issues visit Water Online’s Sewers And Sewer Line Maintenance Solutions Center.