By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Some residents in the City of Howell say they’re fed up with “a crappy situation” caused by storms events that result in flooding and sanitary sewer overflows.

A group of residents who live in the Pulford and Hadden Street areas voiced concerns to Council at Monday night’s meeting who are still dealing with yards flooded by both stormwater and sewer water from overflows caused by storms. City Manager Erv Suida says the significant rain event a couple of weeks ago maxed out capacity in the storm system and the sanitary sewer system, which caused both to overflow. He says the residents live in a very low-lying area, thus yards essentially became a lake with a mix of stormwater and sanitary sewer water.

One resident who lives on Hadden Street presented photos of the damage and a mason jar full of black water with debris that flooded his yard - saying he lost a camper, a Harley Davidson, a shed, and all of his tools. He commented the first events happened around 2007 and over the years since then which has cost him thousands of dollars but it needs to stop because he can’t afford what just happened.

Resident Jason Holley raised concerns about what he felt was a lack of response and urgency from the City as well as no notification about the sewer issues, saying rare storm events are happening more often and there needs to be swifter and faster clean-up. He told Council he spent an entire day power washing his yard and it’s still disgusting. Holley said there’s “still crap in his yard” and visible “poop dust” on plants and trees on yards in other properties – which they’ve been breathing in for weeks.

Another resident who moved into her home a year ago and has a 4-year-old daughter told Council raw sewage was sitting in her backyard for days without any type of clean-up or notification from the City and kids all over their block were playing in it. She was without power for five days but had to keep her windows closed due to the overwhelming smell - which she said smelled like a combination of “porta-potties and rotting corpses”.

City crews have been out power washing and raking yards but it was noted during the meeting that in some cases, they can’t get equipment in because the ground is still so saturated. Staff also reached out to several specialized companies, which relayed there’s no process to actually sanitize yards. Some options were offered but staff cautioned they could result in harmful repercussions and they don’t want to try and help but then end up with adverse side effects. Staff will continue hosing everything down with more powerful equipment.

Suida told WHMI they’ve had crews out trying to wash down everything down but apparently what they’re doing isn’t enough and he understands that. He said they’ll get back out there and try to do a better job and use more volume of water with different methods, which will hopefully clean it up a little better for them while looking at both short and long-term solutions.

Suida said they’ll also look at other things to control when potential sanitary sewer overflows occur and keep it out of backyards. He said it is unfortunate and they certainly feel for the residents and understand the problem – adding it was about a 100-year rain event with flows off the chart and there was an incredible amount of rainwater in a very short period of time.

Suida noted part of the issue can be attributed to a lot of sump pumps being connected directly to the sanitary sewer line inside of homes, which is causing increased flows and the system doesn’t have adequate capacity. Suida said he’s pretty confident that the long-term solution will be sump pump disconnects, but that would need to be done on a volunteer basis. He said some sump pumps in homes are connected to the sanitary sewer line, which is a big contributor to why rain events cause sewer back-ups. In those cases a large influx of stormwater gets in the sanitary sewer, which the system can’t handle, causing these types of issues.

Suida said they’ll also be looking at other things to help control when potential sanitary sewer overflows occur. It was during the meeting that stated this area is a low spot but not the lowest spot, therefore staff will be looking at ways to possibly create a new low spot, trench, and retention area within the City easement that doesn’t impact residents – although it will take a lot of engineering.

Mayor Nick Proctor commented that everyone has the right to be angry and the problem won’t get solved overnight but stressed they’ll do everything they can to appropriately clean up the mess and get things back to a healthy environment. Proctor stated that cost will not be a consideration and if there are budget ramifications, then they’ll deal with it but this can’t continue and they will find a solution to try and help residents.

Photos courtesy Jason Moore and Jason Holley.